An Alabama man handcuffed and jailed for putting flowers on his fiancee’s grave.
“I wish it was a story I was reading, not living,’’ said Winchester Hagans, a student studying education and theology and the son of Evangelist Rick Hagans.
Hagans’ fiancee, Hannah Ford, 26, was killed in a January 17, 2021 car crash, hours after the newly engaged couple had visited their wedding venue. She died just a mile from her Montgomery home.
Just over one year later, Hagans, 31, was pulled over while on his way to preach at Purpose Baptist Church in the Auburn-Opelika area.
During that traffic stop that Hagans learned he had an outstanding warrant for misdemeanor criminal littering, a warrant obtained by Ford’s father, with whom the couple had a strained relationship.
The complaint stemmed from a wooden planter box that Hagans built for Ford’s grave and decorated with pictures of her and them. The box was inscripted with the lyrics from ‘Of Crows and Crowns’ by Dustin Kensrue.
Hagans said someone keeps removing the box and flowers, and he keeps replacing them.
His reason for doing so is simple: “You don’t stop loving someone when they’re gone,’’ he said. “Love is forever.”