Dingle, party of 7
/My partner, my love, and my home died Friday, July 19, after a freak accident. Lee was playing in the waves at the beach with three of our kids Thursday, July 18, and an intense wave hit him just right to slam his head into the sand, break his neck, and make his throat swell so much his brain was deprived of oxygen for too long to recover. Some heroes - including our kids - tried to save him, but it wouldn’t have mattered what they did. His body couldn’t recover from the initial injury.
We met when I was 18 and he was 19, and we’ve been together ever since. I wasn’t supposed to be saying goodbye at 37. I don’t know how to be a grown up without him, but I’ll learn. I just wish I didn’t have to.
(To help with all that is to come, friends set up a GoFundMe for us here.)
If you didn’t know him, I’m sorry. You missed out. As you hear people share stories, you’ll think, “no person can be that wonderful,” but? He really and truly was.
In all this, I’m discovering I have the world’s best people. We all feel so held right now, but the person we’d like to hold us won’t do so this side of heaven. I didn’t know it was possible to feel both so loved and so empty all at the same time. This will be a long haul, our lives forever changed, so please keep loving us well months from now
Details to come about all the things. Please pray for us.
Please pray too for Lee’s parents and Lee’s sister and her family. They lost a beloved child and brother.
And, you know, feel free cuss and smash stuff because God knows I’ll be doing some of that. (And breathing and hydrating and eating and taking medicine and all those self care things because I am worth it and because I have 6 little people to parent.)
