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Candlelight vigil planned Tuesday to mark 2 years since death of Deputy Carl Koontz

KOKOMO, Ind. (WISH) — Kassie Koontz started a blog this week.

“When I wrote about that, it feels like you can’t breathe. Those words still ring true today,” she said.

Two years ago her husband, Deputy Carl Koontz, was shot and killed in the line of duty.

“There are days when the wind gets knocked right out of you because again it comes back to reality,” she said.

Her first post is about her journey.

“It feels like just yesterday. The first year you’re in a fog, the second it starts wearing off so everything starts hitting reality that your husband is not coming back home. So, the second year is the worst,” Koontz said.

Her second blog post is about their two-year-old son and her strength, Noah.

“I can’t sit and lay in bed like I want to most days, ya know someone has to take care of him and I just think that knowing that Carl would not want me to be sad all the time and be depressed and there for Noah. I think that helps me go,” said Koontz.

“I do a lot of stuff to help honor Carl so Noah knows who his dad was and I think that also pushes me, just getting his name out so Noah doesn’t have a doubt of who he was.”

He was, she says, an amazing person.

“He would give his shirt off his back for anybody, even if they were walking down the road and it was a stranger, he would stop and he would talk to them and wonder what they were doing, kind of get personal with them. He liked getting to know people, he held those stories dearly,” Koontz said.

Stories she’s now holding onto as she continues to share about what life without her husband has been like for her.

“He just doesn’t need to be forgotten,” Koontz said.

A vigil to remember Koontz will be held at Albright Cemetery in Kokomo at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday night.