Hames' widow adjusting to life without David
Renee Hames of Colorado Springs has experienced a shift in perspective since losing husband David in the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake.
“It puts life in perspective of what is important,” Renee Hames said Thursday. “We spend so much time worrying about the little things. It’s sad it took this to show me that.”
But Hames has also learned how much family, friends and complete strangers care. The Hames family has received gifts and monetary donations from people across the country.
“It’s a humbling experience, the amount of people who have given gifts and their time to us,” Hames, 45, said. “Family and friends have made time to be with me.”
David Hames, a freelance filmmaker, and Dan Woolley, a Compassion International worker living in Colorado Springs, were in the lobby of the Hotel Montana in Haiti when the quake struck. Hames was crushed instantly when the hotel crumbled. Woolley was pulled out alive about 65 hours later.
Until David’s body was recovered Feb. 5, Renee Hames held out hope that her husband would be found alive, mainly because he had with him a backpack of bottled water and snacks.
Renee broke the news to the couple’s children — 5-year-old Aidan and 2-year-old Zander — shortly after receiving a call from Compassion International that David wouldn’t be coming home.
“We believe in heaven,” Renee said, “and I told them that Daddy is now with Jesus.”
While Zander accepted this, Renee and Aidan are experiencing denial and anger, she said.
“Aidan misses daddy,” Renee said. “He asks, ‘Why did daddy have to die?’ and ‘What’s in heaven?’ But I’m encouraged that at least he’s talking about it.”
Renee Hames was a bookkeeper in David’s video business, Red Balloon, and is a homemaker. She hasn’t thought about how the family will survive financially, though she expects to receive “some money” from Social Security and her husband's life insurance policy.
Since the Haiti quake, Aidan and Zander have often watched David Hames’ “Capt. Cranium” video in the absence of their father.
For most of last year, Hames worked on creating a 30-minute faith-based preschool education show, hoping to make it a series and find a distributor. In the video, Hames plays Capt. Cranium who commands an ark with a crew of animated characters. Hames sings and dances while teaching children how to count to 20.
Recently Renee Hames watched the video.
“It gave me joy to see him,” she said, “but it was also hard. He is so alive in that video.”
A benefit concert aiding the Hames family and Haiti residents will be held 6-8:30 p.m. Friday at Vanguard Church, 3950 N. Academy Blvd. Go to www.vanguardchurch.org for more on the event and to contribute to the David Hames Family Fund.
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Call the writer at 636-0367.
