It has been six months since we lost a dear friend and boss, Danny Duggan. We were working at Cherokee Home For Children in Cherokee, Texas as relief houseparents. Danny suffered a brain injury while playing basketball alongside his friends, coworkers, kids living at the home, and the visiting Aggies for Christ volunteers. It was a horrible shock that rocked all of us at the home, and thousands of others who knew and loved Danny.
After Danny died, some of our dear friends sent us a plant in remembrance of him. Well, that plant has been growing and thriving and finally outgrew the pot it was living in. Tonight, Captain Fussybuckets and I went outside and transferred the beautiful plant to a new pot. This was a good opportunity to talk to him about Mr. Danny, so I told him that our friends gave us this plant when he died. He began asking questions. I asked him if he remembered Mr. Danny and he said “yes.” Digging deeper to see if he really remembered, I said “where was Mr. Danny from?” and he immediately said “from Cherokee.” He most likely doesn’t remember much about Mr. Danny, but Mr. Danny meant so much to him and us, and taught us about unconditional love. He loved our son and all the kids at children’s home and in the community. He loved ALL children. He ALWAYS talked to Fussybuckets when he saw him. He talked to him like he was an old friend, and our son, who was 14 months old when we moved to Cherokee, responded so well to him. He loved him. He always went to him at staff meetings, church, devotionals, everywhere. He didn’t go to many people, but he always went to Mr. Danny. That tells me a lot. Children can see through the phoniness. They see through to the heart of people, and Captain Fussybuckets saw Mr. Danny’s heart of gold. He loved him and trusted him, and it makes me very sad to know that Mr. Danny isn’t around for our son to get to know.
As we finished up adding the soil to the pot, we were talking about how Mr. Danny was in Heaven. Mr. Danny was always a teacher and a servant of Christ and I think he would be happy to know that our son learned more about Heaven and it opened the door to more communication about Heaven because Mr. Danny is living there now.
 |
| Mr. Danny and one of the sweet kids from the children’s home last year picture property of the Cherokee Home For Children Facebook page |
to learn more about Cherokee Home For Children, the awesome people who live there, and the awesome stuff they’re doing, simply visit their website: http://www.chc4kids.com/
Blackberry Mama
Tuesday 26th of July 2011
In our life, it was my husband's mother, a great sister, friend and a wonderful mother-in-law to me, who helped us discuss Heaven and God's promises with our now 8 year old "Eeny".
Because of his hearing disability, when we first told him about Heaven, at age 4, he thought we said "Kevin". We hadn't learned this until one day, we were packing to spend a weekend in Connecticut with our dear friends, and their son Kevin.
"Where are we going?" he asked."We're going to see Kevin!" I exclaimed.
He got so excited that I wondered if he missed his friend that badly. Then I heard him tell his father,
"We're going to see Grandma!"
I think of this often as part of her stories. Thanks for introducing us to Mr. Danny.