CO...A Little Help
About six months ago I wrote a blog about the Sutton Family asking for prayer. They lost Daniel in a freak window cord accident. While we were in CO preparations were being made for a dedication at Daniel's favorite park. Andrea, Daniel's Mom ,and I have been FBing back and forth about possible flowers and trees for the area. So one morning we went to the park to help mulch, remove and replant bushes for the yellow brick road....anything we could do it get things ready. The dedication was scheduled for the Saturday before Father's Day. We had to come back home so we didn't get to attend the dedication. But from all accounts posted on FB and newspaper articles I have read...it was a great time of celebration for a lively little boy that Jesus needed for a special job in heaven.
A Bench for Daniel
Firestone remembers 3-year-old accident victim
By
© 2010 Longmont Times-Call
FIRESTONE — The bench sits near Daniel Sutton’s favorite swingset. There are trees and flowers and a plaque on a rock. Someday, there’ll even be a short stretch of yellow brick road.
But most of all, the spot holds memories. Just one last touch of a 3-year-old boy.
It can’t be enough. But it can be a comfort.
“It’s great for my spirit to know that in a park Daniel used to play in, at least a memory of him will still be here,” said the Rev. Drew Depler, the Tri-Town campus pastor for LifeBridge Christian Church.
About 125 people gathered Saturday to dedicate a corner of Firestone’s Harney Park to Daniel, who strangled to death on a curtain cord in his room Jan. 21. Shortly after Daniel’s death, Eagle Scout Tyler John proposed dedicating a bench and area of the park to the boy, which drew strong support from both the town and the community at large.
“I think it turned into something good,” John said.
Daniel’s mother, Andrea Sutton, agreed. The family may be moving soon, she said — “It’s very hard to live in our house” — but the memorial makes it a little easier to return.
“We’ll always have a special place to come back and remember,” she said.
‘I tricked you!’
Memories of Daniel weren’t hard to come by Saturday. It might be how many times he asked to hear the story of David and Goliath. Or how much he loved “Annie” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Or how chatty he could be, even calling out “Go, Cubbies!” to a Cardinals fan he knew.
“I think he was going to be either a politician, a news anchor or possibly a sportscaster,” his mom said.
Or a practical joker. He already had a head start on that career when a friend, Cassie Oakes, was driving him home and he kept insisting he’d lost his shoe — by throwing it out the window.
“We finally got home, and I opened the door, and his Croc falls out of the door,” Oakes said, laughing. “I told him, ‘Daniel, you didn’t throw your Croc out of the car!’ He said ‘No, but I tricked you!’”
For Judy Leinweber, he was the preschool boy with the kind spirit, the love of singing and the animated face.
“Many times, I’d drive home giggling all the way, at his facial expressions and everything he put into everything,” she said.
All the right ingredients seemed to be there: faith and humor, energy and thoughtfulness. His parents were looking forward to seeing what would come next.
Until it came.
Accident
On Jan. 21, it was time to get Daniel up from his nap. So, Andrea Sutton and her then 4-year-old daughter Ashley, Daniel’s sister, ran up to get him.
Ashley found him first. She thought he had fallen asleep standing up. But Andrea Sutton saw the curtain cord looped around his neck and knew.
“I pray she will someday forget that sight,” Andrea Sutton said. “But it’s that image that replays in my mind over and over and over again.”
In the days since then, that image has moved her and her husband to action. Both have become advocates for cordless blinds and for getting ones with cords off the market, so that no other family has to share that grief. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 200 infants and small children have died from strangling on blind cords since 1990.
“They’re little deathtraps for children of all ages,” Andrea Sutton said.
In between the anger, there still are questions. The family’s faith has helped, Andrea Sutton said, but the questions still come sometimes.
“It’s hard,” she said. “It’s hard to trust when you’ve prayed for protection since before they were born. ... But we do thank God for the time he allowed us to have.”
Come together
For all that the family has gone through, it hasn’t been alone. Friends and neighbors have offered a hand from the start — and that’s not even including the special gestures.
Gestures like Tyler John’s Eagle Scout project, which started as a plan to put up three benches in the park and ended in dedicating one to Daniel.
Or like the town’s contribution of $2,500 and a lot of work hours to make the project happen.
Or even like musicians Jeremiah Horner and Jeremy Fisher’s composition of a song for Daniel’s family.
“It was tough,” Fisher said. “But it was an honor to do something in memoriam.”
Firestone town manager Wes LaVanchy smiled as he saw the crowds gather in the park Saturday.
“It’s a tragic, tragic thing,” he said. “But it’s neat to see the community come together to celebrate a sweet young boy. This is what community is about.”
A Bench for Daniel
Firestone remembers 3-year-old accident victim
By
© 2010 Longmont Times-Call
FIRESTONE — The bench sits near Daniel Sutton’s favorite swingset. There are trees and flowers and a plaque on a rock. Someday, there’ll even be a short stretch of yellow brick road.
But most of all, the spot holds memories. Just one last touch of a 3-year-old boy.
It can’t be enough. But it can be a comfort.
“It’s great for my spirit to know that in a park Daniel used to play in, at least a memory of him will still be here,” said the Rev. Drew Depler, the Tri-Town campus pastor for LifeBridge Christian Church.
About 125 people gathered Saturday to dedicate a corner of Firestone’s Harney Park to Daniel, who strangled to death on a curtain cord in his room Jan. 21. Shortly after Daniel’s death, Eagle Scout Tyler John proposed dedicating a bench and area of the park to the boy, which drew strong support from both the town and the community at large.
“I think it turned into something good,” John said.
Daniel’s mother, Andrea Sutton, agreed. The family may be moving soon, she said — “It’s very hard to live in our house” — but the memorial makes it a little easier to return.
“We’ll always have a special place to come back and remember,” she said.
‘I tricked you!’
Memories of Daniel weren’t hard to come by Saturday. It might be how many times he asked to hear the story of David and Goliath. Or how much he loved “Annie” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Or how chatty he could be, even calling out “Go, Cubbies!” to a Cardinals fan he knew.
“I think he was going to be either a politician, a news anchor or possibly a sportscaster,” his mom said.
Or a practical joker. He already had a head start on that career when a friend, Cassie Oakes, was driving him home and he kept insisting he’d lost his shoe — by throwing it out the window.
“We finally got home, and I opened the door, and his Croc falls out of the door,” Oakes said, laughing. “I told him, ‘Daniel, you didn’t throw your Croc out of the car!’ He said ‘No, but I tricked you!’”
For Judy Leinweber, he was the preschool boy with the kind spirit, the love of singing and the animated face.
“Many times, I’d drive home giggling all the way, at his facial expressions and everything he put into everything,” she said.
All the right ingredients seemed to be there: faith and humor, energy and thoughtfulness. His parents were looking forward to seeing what would come next.
Until it came.
Accident
On Jan. 21, it was time to get Daniel up from his nap. So, Andrea Sutton and her then 4-year-old daughter Ashley, Daniel’s sister, ran up to get him.
Ashley found him first. She thought he had fallen asleep standing up. But Andrea Sutton saw the curtain cord looped around his neck and knew.
“I pray she will someday forget that sight,” Andrea Sutton said. “But it’s that image that replays in my mind over and over and over again.”
In the days since then, that image has moved her and her husband to action. Both have become advocates for cordless blinds and for getting ones with cords off the market, so that no other family has to share that grief. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 200 infants and small children have died from strangling on blind cords since 1990.
“They’re little deathtraps for children of all ages,” Andrea Sutton said.
In between the anger, there still are questions. The family’s faith has helped, Andrea Sutton said, but the questions still come sometimes.
“It’s hard,” she said. “It’s hard to trust when you’ve prayed for protection since before they were born. ... But we do thank God for the time he allowed us to have.”
Come together
For all that the family has gone through, it hasn’t been alone. Friends and neighbors have offered a hand from the start — and that’s not even including the special gestures.
Gestures like Tyler John’s Eagle Scout project, which started as a plan to put up three benches in the park and ended in dedicating one to Daniel.
Or like the town’s contribution of $2,500 and a lot of work hours to make the project happen.
Or even like musicians Jeremiah Horner and Jeremy Fisher’s composition of a song for Daniel’s family.
“It was tough,” Fisher said. “But it was an honor to do something in memoriam.”
Firestone town manager Wes LaVanchy smiled as he saw the crowds gather in the park Saturday.
“It’s a tragic, tragic thing,” he said. “But it’s neat to see the community come together to celebrate a sweet young boy. This is what community is about.”
Please take a moment to watch the short video about inner cord dangers.
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