ANDERSON, Ind. — Hanna Dalton has every reason in the world to not get out of bed every morning. An accident a mere six weeks ago took away the father of her unborn child and her own father.

But somehow, the 19-year-old gets up each day and rises above the grief.

On May 26, Hanna’s father, Eric Dalton, was doing some work at a home east of Muncie when he was overcome by muriatic acid fumes in a well pit. Hanna’s fiance, Robert Justin Benson, was there to help Eric with the work and jumped into the well after seeing Eric become unconscious. He too was overcome by the fumes.

Eric was pronounced dead at the home while Justin succumbed to his injuries from the accident on June 8.

“I feel like Justin is making me not cry,” Hanna said. “I can feel it inside me. It’s like he knows that I don’t need to get stressed because of the baby. I don’t know how else I would do it.”

That baby has been the light at the end of a very dark tunnel for both Hanna and Justin’s mother, Cindy Benson. Thoughts of being able to one day soon hold Justin’s child in her arms help get Cindy through the days.

“She had an ultrasound last week,” Cindy said with joy in her voice for the first time in a 20-minute interview. “It’s a boy. I prayed for that. I really wanted his name to go on.”

Hanna plans to honor the two most important men in her life, naming her son after the two — Robert Justin Eric Benson. She is due December 19.

Love at first sight

Hanna said she and Justin were together for seven months before the accident. They first met last school year at Ebbert Education Center and started dating in November.

“He worked at Payless in the fuel center and asked if I wanted to hang out,” Hanna said. “We met there after he got off work one night and sat and talked for hours. To me, it was love at first site. There wasn’t a single day after that, that we didn’t see each other. We never argued. We always had a good time together. We did all kinds of fun stuff together.”

Their favorite spot was a local Chinese buffet, just one of several places she’s not been able to set foot in since Justin’s death.

“There are so many things and places that remind me of him,” Hanna said. “It is still hard.”

She can’t even sleep in her room. That’s the room she shared with Justin most nights and still can’t stomach going in there.

Hanna hasn’t really accepted it yet, she said.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my  whole life,” Hanna said. “It still doesn’t feel real to me. It is like I’m trying to wake up from a nightmare.”



‘Sticking together’

Cindy said Justin’s stuff is still all over the house. His car is parked in the yard. There are pictures of him hanging up on every wall. He would have graduated from high school this year.

“All that makes it harder,” Cindy said. “Every little thing makes it harder. I just haven’t accepted it.

“It’s still just as difficult to deal with as it was the day he was injured. My husband finally has gone back to work, but he still can’t make it through the day. We go out to the cemetery to see him. We’re just not coping very well. Work for a little while and then go out to the cemetery and sit — that’s about all we can do right now. We are going minute-by-minute.”

Cindy and her husband, Bob Benson, have ordered the headstone and are waiting for it to come in.

“These are things we shouldn’t have to be doing, things we shouldn’t have to plan,” Cindy said. “We shouldn’t be picking out the headstone for our 19-year-old son. It’s just really hard.”

Each day she goes through the gamut of emotions. Out of her four children, Justin is the one that Cindy went to with everything. That’s who she talked to the most, making them very close.

“There are some things that I hold on to that get me through the day,” Cindy said. “I told him, ‘I love you,’ every day. I know he knows that. I carry that in my heart. That is the only thing I have for a while.”

Cindy and Hanna talk several times a day. The two know what the other is going through and are trying to support each other.

“We are sticking together,” Cindy said. “She’s always calling me, and I’m calling here. I know that is what Justin would want. Sometimes I forget what she is going through with losing Justin and her father too. I’ll call her crying. I know that it makes it hard for her to deal with.”



‘Earth Angel’

Hanna didn’t live with her father for the first five years of her life. Even though he and her mother, Lorinda Snyder — Eric’s common-law wife — got back together when Hanna was 5, she said it wasn’t until this past year that they became close. But they became very close.

“From December to Easter Sunday it was just me and him living together,” she said, as her parents had split up for those few months. “So during those four months we got very close. I was the only person there for my dad, and we talked about everything. Those months, that’s what I’m going to remember most.”

She recalls her dad as a “hilarious” guy. Eric gave everyone and everything a nickname. Justin’s nickname came from what Eric thought was unusually pouffy hair. “Helmet head” was the term of endearment Justin often heard. Hanna’s was “Bisk” or “Biskies.” Eric also called his daughter his “Earth Angel” — a song she had played at his funeral.

“He was a big socializer,” she said. “He had a lot of friends. We had so much fun just hanging out together and with Justin.” Hanna said her dad recognized that Justin was a good guy, treated her well and had goals for their future together.

“It made my dad so happy that I was dating Justin,” she said. “They cared about each other. That is why Justin is where he is today because he tried to save my dad.”



Moving on

Hanna and Cindy can’t dwell on the losses of their loved ones. They don’t have time with Robert Justin Eric on his way.

They’ve just gotten to the point where they can start to think about a nursery, changing table, diapers and clothes.

Wednesday, Cindy, Hanna and the rest of their families went shopping for a crib. Even still submerged in such grief, the families found joy.

“Justin would have loved today,” Cindy said. “He’s been putting things together since he was 5 years old. He put his own bike together at that age. Putting together that crib would have meant so much to him.”

Hanna knows that the hurt isn’t going to go away after she gives birth; actually, she thinks it may get a little tougher. But what she knows is that Justin will be with her every moment.

“We all really appreciate the concerns and donations everyone has given to help us through such a hard time,” she said. “We’ve been through a lot and it is something people can’t imagine unless they go through it themselves. But we are trying to stay as strong as we can. And we’ll make it. I know we will.”

Contact Abbey Doyle, 640-4805, abbey.doyle@heraldbulletin.com.