TOLEDO, Ohio — Days after his infant daughter's death, Nathen Steffel asked strangers on the Internet for one thing: He and his wife wanted a photo of their daughter without the breathing tubes and tape that masked her little face.
The response has been overwhelming.
Hundreds of photos, sketches and paintings have poured into the family's northwestern Ohio home and their inbox.
"I'm getting messages in languages from all over the world," Steffel said Wednesday. "It's more than I can count."
His daughter, Sophia, died last Thursday at a Cincinnati hospital from complications of a tumor in her liver, six weeks after she was born in Columbus. She was awaiting a transplant.
Her father posted a message on Reddit asking if anyone could use their photo of Sophia in the hospital and remove the tubes attached to her face and wrist. "Since she was in the hospital her whole life we never were able to get a photo without all her tubes," he wrote.
The family has received thousands of messages expressing support and hundreds of photos. Someone is sending a woven blanket with Sophia's picture.
Steffel, who lives in the village of Kalida with his wife, Emily, and their two sons, said his family now has more memories of their daughter than they could have imagined.