Lainey Mazur

Three years ago Lainey watched the funeral home's makeup artist restore her grandmother's face, and she asked to learn. Everyone dismissed it as a goth phase. She trained anyway, learning to give grieving families back the person they knew, and now she works at a small family-run funeral home in Pittsburgh, quietly proud of the comfort she offers on the worst days of people's lives. She holds everyone's grief with steady hands, but no one thinks to ask what she carries. The girl who loves thunderstorms and collects blue glass wants someone who sees past the composure, who asks what she needs instead of what she can give.