In Memory
In loving memory
This entire website is dedicated to my dear sweet father.
Daddy your strength keeps me going when I can not seem to find it on my own.
I will never understand why you had to leave so soon but I do know you will always be my hero.
On my mind and in my heart you will always be….
~Love & Hugs~
Dannie Howard Mitchell
~Rest in peace daddy~ ;(
The message below was the original that was posted on my website right after it happened.
~In my time of need~
I have been sitting here at my keyboard for over an hour, trying to think of what to say. I can’t feel or really even move, but I NEED to reach out and re-thank everyone “again”.
As many of you know, there has been a thank you message posted on my website for the care and compassion shown to our family due to the passing of
Rob’s mother on May 8, 2009. As you may have seen in that message, she was not only Rob’s mother but without a doubt my absolute best friend for the past 23 years. No words can ever describe how much I adored her or will miss her. The website message not only thanked everyone for their extreme kindness, it conveyed how incredibly focused we were on supporting Rob’s father emotionally through this heart breaking loss.
We knew memorial day would be hard but never in a million years could we have imagined how hard…..
It was early in the morning (May 25, 2009) when I was delivering kittens and heard a dispatch go over the police scanner…“Structural Fire out on highway 136…..YY…Man trapped inside”.
I froze with fear (as many of you or may not know I have a horrific fear of fires because I lost my cattery to a fire years ago). A fire is, in my opinion, the absolute worst way to go.
You may be wondering “What was the connection?” or why was I so frozen with fear? It’s because my parents lived out on that route “YY” and my dad was disabled from a stroke and could hardly walk. As I turned
to rush towards the phone, it rang. It was my sister who was up in
Iowa and over an hour away. She screamed out…..“There’s a fire at mom and dad’s, hurry…get out there quickly!!”
I bolted out the door and do not even remember a single second of the 15 minute drive to the farm house: other than the closer I got the more I could see the sky was filled with thick smoke.
When I arrived and saw the EMT workers standing by the ambulance I began to scream “Where’s my dad? Why on earth aren’t you working on him?”
I was beside myself with confusion. I turned and ran from them, determined to go find my daddy.
Fire & rescue trucks from three surrounding counties made it impossible for me to see anything. As I dashed in and out through tons of people I saw my mom covered in black smoke from head to toe, and dripping wet. Her face was overcome with shock. I ran towards her and held her in my arms, glad to see she was alive. She could not even speak or even move. I sat her on a little red wagon out in the yard and then proceeded to run towards the house. I was tackled by fire firefighters who echoed out my worst fear. “It’s too late, he’s gone” they told me.
My world stopped at that very moment in time. I could not breathe; I could not get air in my lungs and it was not because I was surround by heavy, thick black smoke. It was because my father was so much a part of me that a massive piece of me died along with him. I swear my heart stopped beating as the world shifted into slow motion.Normal, natural colors faded to a lifeless black & white. I turned and looked back at mom…still looking at me with that same blank stare across her face. I felt as though the weight of that old farm house was on my shoulders as I tried to make it back to her arms.
I am certain that if anyone in this county was outside at that moment, they heard my screams; not only here in Unionville but straight up to heaven where my daddy now called home.
Disbelief that Rob’s mother had passed away a mere 16 days before my father ravished through every cell of my being, after all: sympathy cards were still rolling in for HER. How could this be happening?
Unimaginable pain struck me like lightening because it is incomprehensible for the human brain to accept such extraordinary losses in such a short period of time.
The world continues to be locked in slow motion, yet through the strikingly slow pace tiny rays of sunshine and proof of the Lords’ presence are upon me. From the moment I found out that my father had passed in a fire I had not set foot into my office, nor spoken to anyone who was not directly related to me. Yet condolences from complete strangers, cat breeders I had never even heard of, people who knew me when I was a child began to shower over me and somehow seep in between the moments of complete silence and tearful outbursts that my body continued to thrust me back into.
At that point I cannot foresee things ever being “normal” again. I tried to just “think”, but I couldn’t. I tried to understand and make sense of what had unfolded in the month of May (2009) but there is no understanding this type of horror and I firmly believe there never will be.
The bottom line is, I want to extend my complete and total appreciation for the extreme kindness and compassion everyone has surrounded us with.
I want to thank my dear sweet friends Pam and Tammy who dropped everything and drove all the way from Arkansas the moment they heard the news.
I want to thank my children and husband who carried my work load of cat care from the moment I heard the dispatch call go across the police scanner.
I want to thank my guardian angel Junior (Rob’s father) who rushed to my side when I sat sobbing in emergency room waiting to hear the news that mom was ok from the smoke.
I want to thank the fire fighters who worked so incredibly hard to save my father’s life.
I want to thank Kevin for opening the funeral home late that night and allowing me to see what was left of my dad even though deep in his heart he really did not want to. Kevin, I am sorry for being so demanding about seeing him: it’s just that I needed closure and to know that he was really gone because my mind would not allow that thought to enter.
I am now left with memories of one of the absolute greatest souls God ever sat upon this planet.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.
