Teen turns words into keepsakes
Staff writer
Teenager Moriah Jost turns her gift for words into treasured keepsakes that honor a loved one’s memory.
The Hillsboro High junior felt the call to turn words into works of art as a child.
She decided to take a craft she was passionate about and turn it into a service for the Hillsboro funeral home run by her father, Jared Jost.
She creates memorial poems from the obituaries of deceased family members. Her father offers them to the family during or after the service.
Jost’s poems won first place and honorable mention honors in Winfields Arts and Humanities Writing Contest. Several others have been published.
Her verse often is printed on greeting cards. She plans to expand her enterprise into prose or other projects.
“I have written about 10 so far for families,” she said. “They really do appreciate it.”
As a Christian, she embraces spiritual themes, believes in her calling, and plans to put her God-given gift to good use.
A disciplined writer, she detests free-form verse and uses an outline to structure rhyming couplets.
When she is not busy writing, she runs cross country and sings in Hillsboro High school musicals. She has accepted several parts in the upcoming production of “Shrek.”
An honor student, she plans to attend Colorado Christian College after high school.