Danny's Story...

Danny was the love of my mother's (Melanie) life!  They had been together for a little over a year when he passed away.  We had known Danny for several years, infact, I used to babysit his daughter, Chelsea when she was as little as 2.  She was 14 when her father died. How do I describe Danny?  Well, Danny was crazy!  I guess that's why they called him 'Mad Dog'!  He made everyone laugh with his craziness!  He snorted and howled when he liked something!  He was very easy going and carefree, very rarely did he get mad.  My favorite story about Danny is how he always thought that every song that came on the radio was Metallica!  That kind of rubbed off on my mom and she still does it!  He loved music, my mom (who he called 'Squishy'  because she was soft, he said), and, most of all, his daughter (he called her 'Face')! Danny worked for many years setting up stages for concerts and he loved it!  Through out the years he got to meet several different bands which was really cool to him! Danny's Tragic Last Day On July 3rd, 1998, my mother and Danny went to the bank of the Mississippi River.  They went there often, just to relax and enjoy nice days.  They decided to go for a swim and my mom swam across to an island.  When she got there, she realized that she was lucky to have made it because the current was so strong.  She yelled to Danny, "Don't even try it!  It's too hard!  Just go get me some help!".  Well, Danny decided to try to make it across.  My mom was yelling at him to go back to shore and before she knew it, he was gone.  The current drug him under. Someone on shore saw what had happened and called 911.  A rescue boat headed out to the island to get my mom.  By then, the media was there reporting what had happened.  Rescue boats immediately started searching for Danny, but it was too late.  His body wasn't found until July 7th. Everyone that knew him was absolutly crushed!  Danny was cremated and several people, including myself, did Eulogies at his funeral! We miss you, Danny!