He’s gone but far from forgotten.

High school senior Julia Yllescas lost her father when she was just 9 years old. Her dad, US Army Capt. Robert J. Yllescas, was wounded in 2008 by an improvised explosive device while deployed in Afghanistan. The roadside bomb detonated near his unit in Keating, mangling his arms and causing severe head trauma.

The 31-year-old Nebraska native was taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., but died from his wounds a little over a month later.

“It gets harder and harder every year,” Yllescas tells CNN of the pain she feels missing her father. “It hurts and it’s absolutely suffocating.”

Now Yllescas is honoring his memory — and the years they weren’t able to spend together — by digitally adding him into her senior photos.

Photographer Susanne Beckmann edited a translucent, ghostlike version of Yllescas’ father into images so that he’s standing next to her.

After posting the images to her Facebook Sunday night, Beckmann received an outpouring of responses.

“This was just supposed to be something special I was doing for one of my customers,” Beckmann says. “I’ve never seen a reaction like this to my photos.”

Now, other families are requesting she do the same for them and images of the loved ones they’ve lost, too.

Yllescas will soon have other media to recall her father’s legacy: His story, retold in CNN anchor Jake Tapper‘s 2012 book “The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor,” is being made into a movie, “The Outpost,” set to release later this year, starring Orlando Bloom. Mel Gibson’s son Milo Gibson will play the part of Yllescas.

The photos and upcoming film bring his proud daughter some catharsis.

“I can’t even put into words how it makes me feel, knowing he’s still with me,” Yllescas says.