An engineer and farmer, Dan Hasting was always there for his little girl.
He fully supported her as she sought country music stardom in the Tennessee town that defines that genre. She had been on track to be a doctor.
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Dan was a careful planner, Kate said. He gave the sort of support and love you find in fairy tales.
“I got such a storybook dad,” she said.
When it came to her career, Dan advised Kate to surround herself with people who shared her faith and values.
Work hard.
Don’t skip steps.
“It does not matter if it takes you longer than everyone else, just do it correctly,” Kate remembers her father instructing.
>> RELATED: Kate Hasting stays strong after tragedy: ‘We’ve been letting our faith carry us’
Kate was excited to see her dad that morning.
She always was.
“We got to sit together,” Kate, a Wright State grad, said. “I got to play him (an early video) of the new song.”
The next day, Kate’s life changed forever when she lost her dad in a tragic car accident in Miami County. Her mother also was critically injured and remains hospitalized.
On Wednesday, July 25, Kate and her band Hasting and Co. dedicated a show to her father in front of a hometown crowd at the Clark County Fair.
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Also at the fair, a portion of the music video for “American Love” was filmed. It’s the band’s new song — the one Kate showed her dad on their last Friday morning together.
“I don’t think it was accidental,” Kate said of the precious moments she shared with her dad that morning.
Credit: Source: Hasting and Co.
Credit: Source: Hasting and Co.
Parts of “American Love” were inspired by her parents’ love.
Daniel Hasting, 54, was killed during a three-vehicle crash Saturday, June 30 on State Route 571 at State Route 201 in Bethel Twp.
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His wife 52-year-old wife Elizabeth "Libbee" Hasting, a Northwestern Local schools board member, was seriously injured.
With her dad gone and hospital officials preparing her family for the possibility that her mom could join him, Hasting at first feared she had had reached her "hard line."
“Everybody has that hard line where ‘I could never live if this happens,” Kate said of the grief and desperation she felt in those moments.
The hard line was not crossed and Elizabeth Hasting continues to fight for her life at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, her daughter said.
Kate said her family and friends are clinging to their faith.
“My number one goal right now is getting Mom better,” Kate said. “It is funny the hope you survive on.”
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The Springfield native learned of the accident while she was attending a family reunion for her boyfriend’s family. She received a call from an uncle whom she doesn’t talk to often.
“I knew something was very wrong,” she said. “I was not able to get ahold of my parents for a couple of hours.”
Kate said her dad’s death has changed everything.
“He literally could fix anything,” she said. “The hardest part of this is that this is the first thing my dad hasn’t been able to fix.”
HOW TO HELP
A Go Fund Me account has been established to support the Hasting family.
Credit: Hasting family photo
Credit: Hasting family photo
Credit: Source: Hasting and Co.
Credit: Source: Hasting and Co.
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