I met Hannah through her work as a journalist at KUNM – a series of interviews regarding survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Her intelligence, compassion, curiosity, and good humor were immediately apparent to me – as they surely were to all who encountered her – and my appreciation of her wonderful quality as a human being only deepened as I continued to interact with her in other contexts.
She was a “North Star” kind of person – the kind of person that gives you hope and a sense of direction whenever you see them. Albuquerque can be a frustrating place, and there have been times where I’ve been pessimistic as to its future – but there have been other times where I’ve told myself that as long as we’ve got people like Hannah Colton around, rockin’ and rollin’ and doing their thing… we’re gonna be alright. There aren’t a lot of people like that. She was one of them.
The last time I spoke with Hannah was at Sister, dancing and smiling and joyous. That’s how I will remember her, and that’s the the absence I’ll feel for her.