LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The family fun and smiles have been hard to find the past few months for the Mengedoht family.
Preston, 9, lost his mother, Det. Deidre Mengedoht, who was killed inside her LMPD cruiser in a crash on I-64 on Christmas Eve.
"You don't ever think it's going to happen to your family, until it does, and you're never really prepared for it," said Preston's father, Jason Mengedoht. "(Preston) has been really strong. I can say Preston has really been the rock of the family."
Mengedoht said Preston misses his mother every day but understands what happened and is open about it with family.
"He's just really shown me and my wife and my family that everything is going to be OK," Mengedoht said.
A little healing comes every day, and Preston is about to get a little more help.
Preston, his half-brother and step-brother each received $500 gift cards for shopping sprees at Academy Sports and Outdoors.
"That's really what they need: just to be kids for a while," Mengedoht said. "Get back to normal."
That was the hope when Academy and LMPD planned the shopping spree a few weeks back.
"This is a memory they're going to remember forever," Mengedoht said.
It'll be a good memory and a nice reprieve from the realities of life that the young boys have been forced to learn about far too soon.
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