It has been nearly a year since Eastman police officer Tim Smith was fatally shot in the line of duty.
Smith was responding to a call about a suspicious person with a gun when Royheem Deeds allegedly shot and killed Smith.
All 17-month-old Madison Smith has left of her father Tim are photographs, but her mother and Smith's fiancé Chelsea Clark says she will make sure Madison knows the type of man her father was.
“He died being a hero, and he died doing what he loved,” said Clark.
It’s a day Clark says she will never forget.
“[I] still don’t believe it’s true. Even at the funeral, I didn’t want to believe it was true that that was him lying there,” said Clark through tears, “some days now it’s still hard to get through my head that he's not coming home.”
She says Smith was a family man and treated her two kids, Kylie and Jacob, like his own.
“We all brought up something about fishing, so the next day he took us fishing and it was funny because he was being so funny that day,” recalled Kylie.
A year later Clark is struggling with the loss, waiting for the day that the pain will start to go away.
“I don't want to believe that life with him is over,” said Clark.
She says it’s the little things, like looking at his old sunglasses or hunting clothes, that gives her peace and lets her know that even though he is physically not here, he is still with her.
“I can feel him hugging me and him telling me, ‘Baby you can do this. Don’t give up because in the end it's going to be worth it,’” said Clark.
Eastman's District Attorney Tim Vaughn says right now they are waiting for the judge to schedule Deeds' first proceeding. It is the first step in the death penalty.