By: Kenny Beck
It has been seven months since Greensboro Police Sergeant Dale Nix was shot and killed while he was off duty at a convenience store in Colfax.
His funeral in January drew dignitaries from across the state and country. In May, he was recognized during a candlelight ceremony in Washington D.C. for fallen members of law enforcement. Throughout this time, his widow has remained intentionally out of the spotlight – until now.
Kelly Nix is speaking exclusively with WXII 12 News for the first time since the Dec. 30 incident. She said it is finally a little bit easier to talk about what happened that afternoon and also wants to thank everyone who has helped her during this excruciating time.
She said it does not feel like her husband has been gone for seven months.
“Sometimes it feels longer, and sometimes it feels like it was just the other day. I think about it every night, so I relive it every night,” Kelly Nix said. “I don’t think I processed it until about six months later. I think it was a shock, and just trying to get through day by day and minute by minute. Just that’s all we could do. We don’t think long-term around our house these days.”
She was the one who had to break the news to Sgt. Nix’s father, Eddie, over the phone. “I answered the phone, and she told me what had happened, and then I just totally lost it. I mean, I just lost it,” Eddie Nix said. “It couldn’t be possible. We got him off the streets. He was a detective. We have a second wonderful son who’s a firefighter, so you direct your worry that way because I was a firefighter for 30 years. So you start to look at it that way. Dale was safe now. We had Dale safe. And all the sudden, all the safety was gone.”
Kelly Nix described her husband’s funeral as a “blur” but said she still managed to find some comfort that day.
“When we pulled in (to the church), seeing everybody lined up and all the officers, all the family members, all the friends, the community, even driving over there, there were people lined in the road. It just, it made me think, you know, how great he was and you know, we knew it. Just seeing everybody else acknowledge him and acknowledge what he did really was touching,” Kelly Nix said.
The Nix family, along with a number of his law enforcement colleagues, made the trip to Washington, D.C., to see the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and attend the vigil nearby on the National Mall. Kelly Nix said seeing his name engraved there was one of the hardest things she had to see because it was so final.
Moving forward, both she and her father-in-law say the best thing the public can do is keep thinking of them and keep thinking of him.
“Me and my son, Will, talk about it, and when somebody comes up and just says ‘we’re thinking about you,’ that means more to us than anything because it means he’s not forgotten and people still support us, and it gives us some comfort,” Kelly Nix said.
“My biggest fear was this would go away in a few months, and people would forget him. But I’m a retired builder also, and I was at supply, building supply house, Lowe’s, not too long ago. And I gave her my ID, and she looked at it and said, ‘Nix, were you any kin to the officer that was lost?’ And I said, ‘he was my son.’ She went on to say all the stuff she’d heard about him,” Eddie Nix said.
Kelly Nix said her son, who recently turned 16 years old, has a great support system between his group of friends, and the Greensboro Police Department, whose officers regularly check in on him and take him out to lunch. She said he is also a great help to her because he is so much like his dad.
The Nix family gets together once a week for dinner to tell stories about him, laugh, and heal. As Eddie Nix puts it: He’s not gone – he’s just not here.
Both Kelly and Will Nix plan to be at registration for Camp HOPE, which runs from Aug. 11 to 16 in Greensboro. It’s a week-long program put on by the Family Justice Center for children who’ve experienced trauma. Sgt. Nix worked closely with the FJC during the final six years of his life and was a passionate supporter of Camp HOPE.
Click here to view original article on WXII 12.
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