Life for Leanne Mitchell and her three small children is lived minute by minute now.
The family of Cpl. Jimmy Mitchell is thankful for the support of the community of Petawawa, the military and of each another, she said in an interview Tuesday after a family statement was issued.
"I'm very sad. And it's difficult. But as time goes on it'll get easier," Mitchell said by phone from her home in Petawawa. Life is lived "minute by minute. Hour by hour. Taking it as it comes."
Her 32-year-old husband and his comrade, Sgt. Craig Gillam, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, died last week when a small group of insurgents attacked them with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles. Eight others, including two U.S. soldiers, were injured.
Leanne Mitchell is not hiding the truth from her youngsters, though two of them are too young to understand. She said telling the truth is the best way for them to come to grips with the loss of their father.
She told her five-year-old son Cameron, the oldest, what happened.
Then she answers his questions "as truthfully as I can," and tries to be there for them.
While Mitchell talked with The Sun Times, the sound of children in the background erupted with a little, impatient voice repeating "I need your help."
Mitchell praised the military support, including an officer dedicated to smoothing the way as much as possible. Daycare is available whenever she needs it through a military family support centre. And the people of Petawawa are providing "amazing" support. Cpl. Mitchell's mother, Carol Mitchell, remained in Petawawa to help support Leanne Mitchell and the children.
Bob Mitchell returned home to Owen Sound but will rejoin his family today to attend his son's visitation service in Pembroke, just east of Petawawa.
"We're doing everything we can to help each other get through it," Leanne Mitchell said.
Owen Sound mourners will be able to honour Cpl. Mitchell at a public service at 7 p.m. Monday at the Owen Sound Legion, a family friend said Tuesday night. Further details will be included in funeral home announcements to be published later this week.
Mitchell's Catholic funeral service and burial with military honours will take place in Ottawa's National Military Cemetery Friday at 2 p.m. That's the place he wanted to be buried. The couple had talked about his wishes a week or two before he left.
He thrived in the military, enjoyed constantly learning new things enduring new physical challenges.
"And it was because he challenged himself that others around him would then challenge themselves," Leanne Mitchell said.
Leanne Mitchell said they both knew the danger but he spoke reassuring words. "He said to me 'I believe in the reason I'm going. I am very well trained and very well equipped' and he was very confident."
She last spoke with her husband by phone the day before he died. He would call or e-mail her at least once a week.
"Every time he ever called he was upbeat and happy," she said.
In that last call he asked what the kids were doing, as he always did. He said he loved and missed all of them.
The family's statement extended condolences to the other families who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan. It noted Mitchell's "pride" and "devotion to duty" and his "unwavering" support of the mission. "To his regiment he was the consummate professional soldier with limitless potential. To us, his family, he was a dedicated father, a loving son, and and amazing husband."
Mitchell also leaves his young children, Cameron, Ryan and Jaelyn, his parents Bob and Carol Mitchell and his brother Mark Mitchell, all of Owen Sound, and his wife's parents, Gary and Angela Hass, of Fort Erie.
Since Mitchell and Gillam died, Mitchell's friend and fellow Dragoon member, Mark Andrew Wilson, become Canada's 40th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan.
