Danny Rutter

biography
Daniel Christopher Rutter (January 24, 1997) was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He is widower of his first wife, Caroline Ross-Rutter, and biological father of Laura Rutter, Samantha and Myles Lara-Rutter, second husband of Zoe Lara-Rutter and adoptive stepfather of Marie Lara.

College
Danny left South Dakota and went to a University in Massachussets where he planned to study the course in child psychology.

Birth of Baby Laura
Danny and Caroline Rutter gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl named Lara Jane Rutter.

Breast Cancer
At work Danny received a call at the doctor's office from his wife Caroline who had been showing symptoms and had a large lump in one of her breasts. She was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer.

Depressed, Danny drove up to his parents' house to pick up Baby Laura, explained the situation, thanked his folks for watching her and proceeded to take her home.

Danny did not know what to tell an infant this young whose mother was having breast cancer since she was too young to even understand what was going on. Later that night, Danny learned that his wife was in the hospital since the cancer was so severe and he contacted his friends and co-workers, his sister and his brothers, exlaining what had happened.

Baby's First Birthday
Danny was so depressed about his wife's illness that he did not know what to do, and then realized his baby girl's first birthday was coming up. He went to see his wife at the hospital, and talked to her about his problem.

As she lay on her bed, Caroline told her husband that she had just only one final dying wish: to see her baby girl's very first birthday...to see her daughter Laura turn one year old...more than anything in the world before leaving Earth. Danny promised his dying wife that he will do everything he can possible.

Baby Laura Rutter celebrated her very first birthday, and Danny's wife Caroline who had already lost all of her hair, smiled as she got to see her precious little baby turning one, even though she herself did not have very much time left.

After the celebration, Caroline soon slipped into a coma and was transferred to the hospital once more, where she was put on life support.

Death of Caroline
At around 11:31pm, six weeks after Laura's first birthday, Danny received a phone call from the hospital with heart-wrenching news — his wife Caroline died.

Danny posted his recently deceased wife's story on Facebook. He also prepared to work with a funeral director, and had to come up with cemetery and funeral arrangements, choose which type of service to have, how his wife's body should be prepared, if he should have burial products or cremation, formal transportation, decide on whether if it was to be a pre-service or a post-service event, inform the family and write death notice along with a rundown of possible pre-funeral tasks.

Making decisions were no walk in the park when it comes to such a difficult time like a tragic death of a family member, especially just six whole weeks after a very happy memorable moment when a child turned one!

He also personalized for the reception and the funeral.

Everyone who saw and read Caroline's heart-breaking story helped organize a fundraiser so that Danny and his family could help keep her memory and spirit alive, including a balloon release, and a vigil.

Soon, Caroline's funeral was held at the local community church. It was an open-casket funeral ceremony. Friends and family gathered.

Quotes
"C'mon, Laura. Open the door."

"My little Laura didn't seem keen to meet babysitters. Whenever a babysitter would show up at our door, my little girl would somehow shriek in horror and cling onto my leg with a real death grip, never letting go as if her own life depended on it. She still remembers having been left with a negligent and abusive babysitter as a toddler, and that young woman was screaming and yelling at the little girl, cussing at her, slapping and beating her. I still have the footage of the incident on NannyCam. I found out the whole incident when I came home from work and confronted her for what she had done to my baby girl, telling her that she was fired and then reporting her to the police. But as for Laura, she was so afraid of being left alone with a stranger...being away from her daddy...that she started sleeping in the same bed with me. Whenever I took her out of my bed and put her into her own, she climbed out and came right back into mine. I just did not know what to do." ~ Danny

"About a year ago, Laura showed serious behavioral problems shortly after we enrolled her in daycare. But the staff did not bother to call us to report problems about her. Weird. I don't understand why. I am even surprised that Laura is still in daycare." ~ Danny, confused why Laura hasn't been expelled from daycare yet despite her behavioral problems

"Right now, Laura doesn't want to go to daycare for some...reason. She sounded like she had concerns with the daycares or something, but I can't understand what. I may had been missing subtleties she had been picking up on. We had no idea why she was throwing such temper tantrums so much. It was such a nightmare being a parent. nights ago, while Zoe was making dinner, I happened to find Marie sitting at the kitchen table working on her homework. She told me she was on her way to her room for her daily crying period when she happened to notice that her stepsister had her bedroom door open, and the little girl had slightly visible bruises and markings on her back, calves, thighs, shoulders and legs. When Marie saw this, she quickly came in Laura's room and asked her about the bruises and markings. This made the little girl upset and she ran from the room in tears. ~ Danny, on Laura's unknown reason why she refuses to go to daycare.

My baby girl started shrieking, crying, and kicking up such a fuss when we try to leave her at the daycare. Marie suspected that Laura was being abused after she saw the bruises and markings and came to me about it, so this time...I secretly slipped a RadioShack tape recorder into her cute little backpack so that we can find out what is going on in that daycare. hiding in the linen closet ~ Danny.

"Laura?"

It's bedtime, darling.

"Mrs. LaMont, Never, have I ever...seen such disgraceful behavior from an owner of a child care expected to be responsible for looking out for the well-being of our children!" ~ Danny telling off the owner of Laura's daycare for not reporting child abuse and allowing her staff to abuse Laura and the other children

It's bedtime.