As the date of Feb. 10 looms on the calendar for Jennifer Logsdon and Aimee Grebe, the week leading up to it has become tough for both of them.
On Feb. 10, 2016, two Harford County Sheriff’s Office deputies — Logsdon’s husband, Deputy First Class Mark Logsdon, and Grebe’s finance, Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey — were shot and killed in the line of duty.
The two were responding to a call for a suspicious person at Panera Bread restaurant in Abingdon. That man shot Dailey, who was 52, in the head, fled the restaurant and then shot and killed Logsdon, who was 43, while firing at police as he hid from them in the parking lot of Parkview at Box Hill.
Observances of the second anniversary of the deputies’ death, which is Saturday, will be low-key this year, with a moment of silence planned outside the county office building in Bel Air on Friday, Feb. 9.
“There are 51 weeks that are tolerable, but it’s still fresh and new,” Grebe said Tuesday. “Then you have the week up to the 10th and it’s heavy. You know what lies ahead for the 10th, and not only do I think of Pat and Mark, I think of all the officers that have lost their lives, especially lately.”
Logsdon recently went back to work, which she said adds a different dynamic for her.
“It will always be a difficult week, no matter how many years go by. It will always be a difficult month, no matter how many years go by,” Logsdon said.
She and Mark had been married for nearly seven years. Their blended family included Jennifer Logsdon’s daughter, and Mark’s daughter and son, all from previous marriages, and all of whom are adults.
Grebe and Dailey had been together for eight and were planning to get married. Grebe has two sons and Dailey also had two sons, Bryan and Tyler Dailey, who were 20 and 17, respectively, when their father was killed.
Tyler Dailey, who said he knew the day his dad died that he wanted to become a deputy like his father, became the Harford County Sheriff’s Office’s first police cadet in July 2017.
Grebe and Logsdon are spending a lot of time together this week. Their friendship that formed after the deaths of their significant others is as strong as ever, they said.
“Aimee and I are still getting through this together one day at a time,” Logsdon said. “She leans on me when she has a bad day and I lean on her when I have a bad day.”
“I do have great friends who get me through my bad days,” Grebe said. “Jenn and I still very much lean on each other for support, emotional support.”
On Monday, they decorated at the garden created at the site where Logsdon was killed. They’ll gather there on Saturday with close friends and family to remember Logsdon and Dailey.
Harford County will observe a moment of silence at noon Saturday in honor of the slain deputies in front of the county government building, 220 S. Main St. in Bel Air. The county’s emergency sirens will blast three times in succession for about one minute.
Also as part of the remembrance, Harford County Executive Barry Glassman has ordered that the county flag be lowered and flown at half-staff from sunrise Feb. 10 to sunset Feb. 11. The county office building will also be illuminated with blue lights all week in support of Dailey and Logsdon and all law enforcement.
“Two years ago Harford County was shocked by the murder of two deputies who gave their lives protecting our community,” Glassman said in a statement. “The passage of time has not diminished our gratitude for their sacrifice. We will come together again on this tragic anniversary so that the families of Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey and Deputy First Class Mark Logsdon know they remain in our hearts forever.”
Unlike last year, on the first anniversary of the killings when the Sheriff’s Office observed a moment of silence at the memorial to the deputies at the Boulevard at Box Hill shopping center, there will be no public remembrance this year.
“It seems impossible to believe we lost Mark and Pat to unspeakable violence and tragedy two years ago, on Saturday, because not a day passes that we don’t think of them and miss our friends and our brothers. When tragedy strikes a family, as it did on that day, there is no amount of time that will lessen that great feeling of loss,” Gahler said in an email. “We know that Mark and Pat loved this agency, this profession and this community. We carry on, ensuring the citizens of Harford County are safe, because we know continuing forward is the best way to honor their memory.”
They will be remembered in the spring, when the Sheriff’s Office hosts its annual fallen heroes remembrance in honor of all seven of the Sheriff’s Office’s deputies who have died.
“Each year in May, during the weeks designated to remember the sacrifices of law-enforcement and correctional officers across the country, our agency will pay tribute to our seven fallen heroes at a remembrance ceremony. But, we will carry their memory with us every day of the year,” Gahler said.
Reflections continue
Grebe has been going through pictures, remembering the things they did together with their combined family of four sons.
Logsdon has also been looking at photos, trying to find pictures that truly show her late husband’s personality.
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“I’m trying to stay busy, and doing a lot of reflecting, thinking about what happened two years ago,” she said.
Many of those pictures take her back to that day, Feb. 10.
“It’s different. It’s still sad, but you can also reflect on it in a different way. I’m trying to remember the positive parts and how lucky I am to have Mark in my life for as long as I did and to know him, because he certainly had a great personality,” Logsdon said.
The second year has been easier, she said, because it hasn’t been a year of “firsts” — first holidays, birthdays and other special days without her husband.
“You deal with it in a different way and reflect in a different way,” she said.
Feb. 10 will always be a significant day in their lives, Grebe said.
“We both learned this is part of our life, we learned how to accept it. We laugh and still smile and that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten,” she said. “We don’t forget but we’re getting stronger and we have each other to lean on.”