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Kassidy Heck

Dr. Cassel

Eng. 1201-107

17 February 2019

Heart Broken

It was a cold Tuesday night when my boyfriend, Justin, and I go the call that we never

wanted to get. “Dan has gone unresponsive and he is being rushed to the emergency room”. In

this moment I knew Christmas was not going to be the same this year. Dan was a young, thirty-

three- year old man who loved being on the water fishing. It did not matter where he was or who

he was with, he always found an excuse to get on the water. There was just one thing about Dan

that you would never guess about him. He was battling for his life. He was suffering from lung

cancer and had been since he was just twenty-six years old. He got diagnosed with stage four

lung cancer and was only expected to live for three years, Dan being the fighter he was, lived for

seven years.

Dan was in the hospital for a little over a week. The doctors were running test on him,

seeing if he had any more tumors, trying to control his pain. The doctors were trying to help Dan

as much as they could do but they just couldn’t do it. They sent him home to just let him be

comfortable in his bed and they would go from there.

After a long, hard week, on December nineteenth, just a week before Christmas, we were

scheduled to meet at Dan’s house around seven o’clock to celebrate Grandma Carol’s birthday.

The hospice nurse arrived around four to make sure they got him home safely and to make sure

everything was safe for him to be home. When the hospice nurse got there, we got the news we

never wanted to hear. “Dan will not make it through the night”. I knew for a fact that this was
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going to be one of the hardest times of my life. At this moment in time we were all so confused,

“how could a man just starting a family with twin boys, be taken from them so soon”, “how can

a mother and father bury their son before them” and lastly “how can a grandchild pass before his

grandparents”. It all just didn’t make sense.

As we gathered around his bed, we listened to all of Dan’s favorite music and let me tell

you, he had a great taste in music. His mom put a bunch of songs on and hit shuffle. The song

“Go Rest High on That Mountain” came on and Dan had taken his last breath. The strong young

man who had been battling for his life for so many years had taken his last breath. As we all sit

there and cry, I heard quietly the song “May the Circle Be Unbroken” comes on. Little did we

know there is a reason or sign rather, that these songs came on when they did.

At the funeral service we are sitting there listening to the pastor talk about Dan. How

great of a man he was, how he influenced everyone that he was around and when he was around

there were always a smile on everyone’s faces. She then asked the question “Is there anyone

willing to get up here today and talk about Dan and how he impacted your life”. One of Dan’s

best friends was strong enough to get up there and talk about Dan. As I sat there and thought to

myself, “how is he going to get through work without him every day”, I began to cry. Feeling so

bad for Cory and also applauding him for being so strong to get up there and talk about one of

his best friends who had lost his life. Cory finishes up and walk back to his seat, sobbing being

heard as the pastor walks back up to the front. She then asks if there is anyone else willing to

come up and speak and this is where I realize Dan’s mom was one of the strongest people I

knew.

Belinda, Dan’s mom, is standing at the front, with a paper in her hand and I hear behind

me “oh shit, this is going to be rough”. As she stands up there and just cries, she begins to talk
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about how great of a blessing Dan was in her life. If it wasn’t for Dan, her family wouldn’t be

here today. At the age of fifteen she had gotten pregnant and from there on out her family grew.

She then shares with us that when she was getting ready this morning, she turned on her Pandora

radio station and the song “Angels Among Us” came on. She listened to that song and when she

heard the words “Mama couldn’t see him, oh but he was standing there” she just broke down.

And she kept listening and the next verse went “Oh I believe there are, angels among us. Sent

down to us, from somewhere up above. They come to you and me, in our darkest hours. To show

us how to live, to teach us how to give. To guise us with the light of love” and right there she

realized that Dan was sent down to us, did his time on earth and now it was his time to go back

to heaven. As she is sharing this story, I thought to myself “how is she going to get through life

never talking to her first born again”.

Lastly when Belinda was standing up there, she told us that she contacted Dan’s ex-wife

and asked her if she wrote anything down of what Dan wanted at his funeral when he passed

away. She replied with, “All he asked for is that the songs ‘Go Rest High on That Mountain’ and

‘May the Circle Be Unbroken’ be played at his funeral. That minute I got chills up and down my

arms and to this day I get chills about it. Dan passed away to the two songs that he requested be

played at his funeral and if that isn’t a sign then I don’t know what is. As we sit there and listen

to the two songs that he requested all you hear is people crying and some people singing along.

From this day forward I will listen to these three songs and when I do, there will be tears running

down my face.

After going through this rough time with Justin and his family, I came to the realization

that music is a big impact in people’s lives. From this day forward I will listen to three songs that

remind me of a great man and when I do listen to them, I will get chills up and down my arms
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and I will cry singing them. Attending Dan’s funeral was probably one of the hardest things in

my life to do. He had influenced so many people and there were so many great stories about him.

Not one bad thing was to be said about Dan. He made a big impact on my life and I can’t thank

him enough for that. He has two little stepsons, who are twins and are just two years old, who

call him their angel and they know he is looking down on them. Dan was a very young man who

fought for song long. He is missed every single day but because of his love for listing to music, it

has made me love music just as much. I will always cherish those three songs that were played at

his funeral.