Peyton Brewer-Ross with his daughter Elle and fiance Rachael Sloat.Photo:Courtesy Rachael Sloat
Courtesy Rachael Sloat
Two-year-old Elle Karina Brewer-Ross does not fully comprehend her father is gone, but she does notice his absence.
She is the daughter ofPeyton Brewer-Ross, the 40-year-old who was among 18 dead in Wednesday’smass shooting in Lewiston, Maine– the worst in the state’s history.
Peyton was at Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant for his weekly cornhole tournament when 40-year-oldRobert Cardgunned down the victims, only a few minutes after he killed seven people at the bowling alley Just-In-Time Recreation about four miles away.
Peyton’s fiancée Rachael Sloat remembers him as the “most charismatic and loving person.”
“If you ran out of gas in the middle of the night at 2 a.m. and called him, he would be there as soon as he could, he would drop anything he was doing to help out a friend,” Sloat tells PEOPLE.
But perhaps the biggest loss that the family is witnessing is that of Elle’s, whom Sloat says is “having moments where she is very quiet and contemplative” as she looks around for her father.
One of the instances where Sloat notices this most is before they go to bed, and Elle waits for her father for their nightly ritual.
“They used to play a game when she would get ready for bed…and we’d stand at the top of the stairs and call down to him and say ‘Daddy, where are you?’” Sloat says. “He’d pop out at the foot of the stairs and go: ‘Here I am!’”
“That’s still part of her normal, it’s still part of her routine to want to do that,” she says, “and she’s calling for him and he’s not popping out and she doesn’t understand why.”
Peyton Brewer-Ross with his daughter Elle.Courtesy Rachael Sloat
Peyton, a cornhole enthusiast and pipefitter, was a Star Wars fan and loved comics such as Superman – something he carried over into his role as a father.
“Superman is what he wanted to be for her,” Sloat says. “He wanted to be her hero, and he already was, it wasn’t a title that he had to earn.”
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She and Peyton were extremely close and spoke to each other everyday, including when he was on his way to the bar on Wednesday.
“He was an amazing brother,” she says, breaking down. “I would like for his daughter … If she wants to know about him five years from now, we can say, ‘This is who your dad was.'”
Rachael Sloat and Peyton Brewer-Ross.Courtesy Rachael Sloat
Sloat also has a message for Elle as she grows up.
“I want Elle to know that her father didn’t leave her on purpose,” she says. “He was taken from her, she was robbed of him.”
“Unnecessarily,” adds Lowell-Cunningham.
For now, however, the child whom Sloat says is “wise beyond her years,”is still calling out to her “dada.”
“She still is doing the call, and then he’s not there,” says Sloat. “So I’m having to kind of do it for him.”
AGoFundMehas been created for the family.
source: people.com
