It's been said that art imitates life and that art can sometimes capture beauty through life's pain.

Inside the American Legion Post 735 in West Seneca, there's a window into what it means to serve and sacrifice.

Above a table set for service members missing in action, rests a stained glass memorial.  It features headstones of people from Western New York who lost their lives in the military, from the recent conflicts in the Middle East all the way back to the Civil War.

The central images depict a military funeral: a soldier handing a woman the American flag and the headstone of Daniel Shaw.

Mickey Eberl is the artist who created this remembrance.  Her nephew Daniel was a U.S. Army soldier, motivated by a sense of duty after the 9-11 terrorist attacks while he was a student at West Seneca West.  His mother always feared for her son while he was deployed.

Her worst fear was realized on November 5th, 2007.  Just weeks before he was supposed to return home from fighting in Iraq, Daniel Shaw was killed by an explosive. He was just 23 years old.

A decade after Daniel died, Mickey used her passion and her craft to commemorate her nephew's life.

"I was very proud of it. Very proud of my nephew, and I did it to honor him," she said.