Finding Daddy (A Memoir of a Murder, Survival, and a 911 Operator's Worst Nightmare)

On the first day of school, ten-year-old Jeffrey and his six-year-old brother, Tyler, climbed out of the school bus at the foot of their driveway, walking into their home, excited about the first day of school. Instantly, their anticipation for the family back-to-school celebration turned to horror as they found their father murdered, stabbed and shot in a laundry room awash with blood. With a rush of adrenaline and terror, Jeffrey hid his younger brother, huddled behind the couch and called 911 where his mother had worked for years as a dedicated telecommunicator. The boys survived that day and their widowed mother fought to raise her family, but the horror, fear and grief haunted them for years. In Finding Daddy, the boys turned young men, describe their journey from the terrifying moment they found their father, through the 911 call and on to the courageous years that would follow with their mother at the helm, guiding their survival. Told by public-safety telecommunications professional, Sheila Hanna-Wiles, Finding Daddy is the inspiring true story of reconciling grief, overcoming fear and looking within to discover the character necessary to fight and move forward in the memory of a father and a husband taken too soon. In a rare ironic turn, readers will journey with a 911 professional as that daily call becomes her own. The most daunting part of telecommunications is wondering what happened to the people saved in their most critical moments. Finding Daddy brings readers back to the beginning and then to the inspiring ending of a mother and two sons who traversed the impossible to a healed life.