PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY, Va. – Total strangers reached out to the family of Dustin Warden after they heard how he was killed while working overtime to provide for his family.
Warden was a contractor for VDOT who was killed Saturday when he got out of his vehicle to help set up a mobile work zone and was hit by a car traveling southbound on I-95.
Merchants Hope Memorial Gardens, owned by Carol Hendricks, wants to helping the family with the burial.
“I want Merchants Hope to be a ministry,” Hendricks said. She said she saw the CBS 6 story on Dustin Warden and made a decision to help his family.
“We prayed about it and this is what we felt like God was telling us to do,” she said.
Hendricks and her husband Ken both watched the story on Warden’s death and how he loved his job and his family.
“It sounded like he was a wonderful young man, getting his life on track, you know, a beautiful future, beautiful little family -- and so tragic,” she said.
CBS 6 connected Hendricks with Dustin’s mother Danita Kollman, who said funeral arrangements and finding a burial spot for her son “weighed heavy” on her. She didn’t know what they were going to do or where they were going to go.
“Well, we saw the story and the Lord just laid it on our heart,” Hendricks told Dustin’s mom.
Merchants Hope Memorial Gardens will help the family by giving them a burial space and 50 percent off on his vault, and his opening and closing.
Tuesday afternoon, family members walked the grounds and picked out what they say is the perfect spot for Dustin to be laid to rest.
“It’s a big lift off our shoulders and heart,” his mother said.
“I couldn’t ask for a better place to lay my son,” said his father Mike Warden.
Danita Kollman said the entire family is grateful for what Carol and her staff have done.
“It’s just a comfort and peace in my heart to know that someone is nice and giving and loving as this family is.”
