Ethiopian adoptee Hana Williams (named Hana Alemu by her Ethiopian family) is buried in Union Cemetery in Sedro-Woolley, Washington. Her adoptive parents were sentenced in 2015 to decades in jail for Hana’s death and for the abuse of another Ethiopian adoptee.

Both had joined the Williams’ family in 2008, and Hana died in May 2011.

I attended almost every day of the trial back in 2015, and have blogged many times about Hana’s death.

Yesterday, on my way back from Anacortes to Seattle, I stopped to visit Hana’s gravesite, as I have done frequently over the years.

Hana’s adoptive family home in Sedro-Woolley, about 70 miles north of Seattle, was in a remote area not easily accessible by anyone other than those who live in the gated community.

She lived in so much isolation during her three short years in the United States: separated from Ethiopia, from the Ethiopian community in Washington, from the Ethiopian adoptee community here. The Williamses’ home was on acres of land, so the WIlliamses’ severn biological children plus the two Ethiopian adoptees had room to roam, though only with siblings.

Hana lived in a place surrounded by beautiful trees and blue skies, but soon after she was adopted, she was locked in a barn, locked in a shower room, locked ultimately in a closet, for hours and hours. She died from malnutrition and hypothermia in family’s back yard, having been sent outside as yet another punishment.

Now, in death, Hana has peace, or so some of us pray.

Her burial spot is isolated as well, which I find poignant at each visit. It took a long time for the family to get a marker for the grave, The site itself is distant even from any other graves.

Hana’s horrific death is probably the top reason that adoptions from Ethiopia ended in 2018.

I pray that we all hold Hana in our hearts. No child, no adoptee, should ever suffer what she went through.