Our July is infamous

The month of July began with more than just fireworks.

It’s been a volatile first few weeks and it began with the tragedy in Texas with hundreds of people swept away from their beds in the middle of the night by raging flood waters of the Guadalupe River.

It was reported that the water rose 26 feet in a matter of 45 minutes. As of Friday, there were 120 confirmed deaths and over 160 people still unaccounted for.

Many of these were children. You can only imagine the horrors for those little ones in the last moments of their lives. As the search continues, there were also many other floods in Texas, New Mexico and North Carolina where lives were lost.

There have been more than 20 major aircraft accidents and numerous people who have lost their lives in automobile accidents.

In one of the most active reports of incidents of tornadoes, there have been 724 tornadoes in 2025.

Active fires are still now raging in Alaska and New Mexico.

A list of mass shootings since July 1 include places in Texas, California, Idaho, Ohio and Pennsylvania. These things make us sad.

The death that hits closest to home is the shooting in Elizabethtown Tuesday evening. The community lost Aaron Daine Smith – a second-generation HVAC worker who had taken over the business from his father and was the owner of Smith & Sons Heating & Cooling with his wife Charlotte.

He was a quiet man who as I had written in April of this year, “Smith is talented with his mind and his hands – able to figure out the technical aspects of life and then make them practical so that those around him can benefit from his work. He started his business in 2015 and has become an HVAC leader in the Carolinas. His quiet demeanor and his ability to be able to listen is a gift. His ideas to find perfect solutions is a talent that he has that makes his business a popular choice when North Carolina gets too hot, too cold or just right.

“’My family owned a heating and air conditioning business from ’88 to ’98,” he said. “’They sold it in ’98 and I worked with the company that they sold it to. We started this company in March of 2015. So, this is a new company.’

“This year the company that the Smiths incepted is celebrating their 10^th year in service to their community. Smith is proving that trades cannot be overlooked and not only a valuable part of the fiber of America, but can be a very prosperous endeavor.”

It was 76 days from the day that Charlotte and Daine sat across from me as I taped an interview about their lives and their new transition which included the sale of their media outlet, Bladen-Online.

A comment that she made to me in that conference room at Smith & Sons Heating & Cooling now leaves shivers running up my spine as perhaps there was a deeper call for help that I just could make out between the lines.

“I have found that it’s impossible for a wife and a mother to also try to manage and work three separate businesses,” she said. “It doesn’t do well and I wouldn’t advise that for anyone. I don’t think that I will miss it and I will be happy to help the Bladen Journal. It’s exciting to see what Champion Media will do with the assets that we’ve given them. It is a vital asset of the community and we want to see it continue to grow.”

Although the community is running rampant with rumors (that I can confirm with 100 accuracy) with everything from “The Elizabethtown manager was shot to maybe the whole thing was staged and they are just wanting to get out of the limelight of E-town.”

We don’t know all of answers and I can assure you if you ask someone who is not in the circle of this ongoing investigation, take what you hear with a grain of salt. Things will come out in due time and after due process.

In the next few months concerning all of the tragedies, there will be speculation, stories gathered from around the employee breakroom and factions of people who will take and run with accusations and judgements.

It will all be sorted out, but for now – instead of having to find all the answers over back fences and dark alleys, conspiracy theories and political stumps – let’s take the time to grieve for those who are no longer with us.

For a town already trying to heal from previous feuds and obstacles, this incident shook us all to the core. This event made us more than sad. Our hearts ache.

We knew them. They were a part of us. We have a history. We have memories.

And when we retain memories – the pain is very real – and very deep… and we ache.

Senator Ted Cruz said, “Together with prayer, courage and generosity, we are going to get through these difficult days.”

I am sure that one of the most powerful places you can be right now when navigation through these events of our community is futile… is to find your way to your knees and find a very quiet place of intercession for all of the families and the rest of us who have been left behind.

There are children who will face every single day, every single event, every single holiday from this point on without those they love.

Focus on the face of God while your arms are open to the faces of those who are grieving.