The brief beautiful life of Zina Nicole Lahr.

I originally published this short article on Zina Nicole Zahr back in 2014. Still to this day I am incredibly moved by her spirit and creativity.  

It is never fair when you hear stories about the unexpected death of someone, especially someone who is so young. Zina Nicole Zahr was only 23 years of age. No one quite knows how she died, except that it is believed that it happened on a hiking walk on November 20th 2013. She suffered a severe head injury likely from the force of a rockfall on a trail outside Ouray, Colorado. 

I came across Zina’s story in 2014 when she came to the sudden attention of the world through a short video that surfaced online of her creative output as an animatronics and stop motion whiz. Her eccentric creations and vision appealed directly to tens of thousands of fans worldwide. Where does a person like that come from? What makes them different from us? I cannot answer that question except to say that maybe there is a little bit of Zina in all of us, though we all choose to shut that part of us out as we get older. Some people find her eccentricity and openness too good to be true, I put that down to people’s jealousy. 

If you search online about stories on Zina, you will realise that there are two camps: those who marvel at her talent and free spirit and those that put her down as simply weird. To the pessimistic few, I say shame on you. Have you forgotten what it is like to be imaginative and have a wonderful sense of wonder? To me, Zina ignite my belief in people and my resolve to dare to dream. It’s one of the reasons why I probably write here. Nevertheless, I have said enough. The following video below is a glimpse inside the world of this wonderful young woman.

Photo Credit: The image of Zina is courtesy of the Lahr family. I am unsure of its copyright status, though it appears to be in the public domain. If not, I make use of it under the fair use rationale to pay tribute to a wonderful young women. I am not the upload of the You Tube clip embedded here.