‘Mommy’s gone’

Explaining that he thought she was warning him of “another slide” Jamie turned away from his wife to quickly grab his “little boy,” and throw him “up on the bank” “away from the river.”

And then the father and son raced back to their flattened home where Melissa last stood.

Choking back his tears in the interview with Fox, the man – stepfather to Melissa’s three older sons – continues, “And by the time I turned back around to try to make myself alert…

“She was gone.”

But Jamie couldn’t give up on the woman, who’s described by loved ones as “an all-around sweet soul.”

“So, I went to scream and was screaming for her,” says Jamie, who was still in shock. And then River said, “Daddy, I think mommy’s gone.”

Knowing he had to protect their son, Jamie took River to a neighbor’s place where the two sheltered until the conditions improved.

“Hurricane Helene changed Jamie and his boy’s life’s forever. On Friday his home and everything he owned was washed away,” writes Brandy Burroughs, who organized a GoFundMe in support of the Jamie, who’s left a single father of four boys. “The real tragedy of this event was the passing of his sweet wife Melissa Hensley Guinn…Jamie and the boys are now without their home…The journey will be long for everyone involved and will not be easy.”

Speaking of his heartache, Jamie shares that Melissa was his “absolute best friend.”

“I really don’t know how I’m going to make it without her. We spent every day together. Everything I’ve done, she was involved in the same way as every other,” Jamie said of Melissa. “Just going from having that person in your life every day to literally gone in the blink of an eye, it just shows how often you might take for granted being with someone.”

Reflecting on the devastation caused by Helene, Jamie said he’s still shocked.

“How much the river water rose was just unfathomable. It’s hard to put into words what that was like. It’s stuff that’s not supposed to happen here. It doesn’t happen here,” Jamie said. “We don’t know where, I don’t even know where we begin to start picking up pieces from after this.”

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