BLUFFTON, Ohio — You've heard the processions and the speeches, but his name and title are the only things many of us know about Dominic Francis.
Francis, a Bluffton police officer, was killed on March 31, 2022, after being hit by a car. He was putting down stop sticks during a police chase.
For the first time since his death, Dominic's wife, Ricki Francis, is sharing more about who Dominic was outside of his uniform.
"He held us all together," Ricki Francis said. "When we needed anything, he was the one all of us went to."
Ricki and Dominic Francis were together for 14 years and married for 12 of those years. The two met in high school, but it wasn't until years later that the two got in touch.
"I was working full-time EMS in Findlay and he was a police officer in Findlay and we reconnected and I think we went on our first date like 13 years after we met," Ricki said. "He honestly just completed me."
It was March 30, 2022, when Ricki saw him for the last time.
"He was just driving by, hanging out the window being as goofy as he was, and he went on to work," Ricki said.
She said Dominic switched shifts that day so their family could go camping on April 1, which is Ricki's birthday and the day their campground opened.
Ricki said she was texting him later that night and Dominic was talking about taking a call at Bluffton University.
"When I got up for work the next day, I heard car doors out front," Ricki said. "It was your picture-perfect four officers, standing on my doorstep."
The news was anything but perfect.
Ricki said after learning of her husband's death, she called her sister and their "non-blood" family, who came to her house.
"That night, I had nine people sleeping in my living room," Ricki said. "Only three of us actually lived there, because no one was leaving, they were just there. Whatever we needed."
Through the past year, Ricki said there have been a lot of positives through the negative. A new baby and a wedding, for example, are just some of the good things happening in the past year.
Ricki said her daughter lost her biological father two months after Dominic's death and, "it felt like the Band-Aid getting ripped off again."
Along with that comes the stress of court hearings for the three men in the car that hit and killed Officer Francis.
"I've been in 'first responders mode' a lot the past year. Put on the face and focus on what you have to do and get it done," Ricki said. "I think when all of that is done and I have to start creating a life without the court cases, and without all the anniversaries and memorials, I think things will get a little more difficult and a little more personal."
Dominic was also an integral part of Cory-Rawson Local Schools. A strength and condition coach, Dominic also drove buses sometimes and even was a substitute teacher. Ricki said everyone just knew him as "Dom" at the school and that it felt like he belonged there.
Now his name hangs on the side of the high school's weight room facility.
"This was his sanctuary absolutely. His sanctuary probably from high school to the day he died. I'm not going to lie, he was probably here that Wednesday morning," Ricki said, "this is where they all knew him."
Not only will Dominic's name stay there, but it will also forever be at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.
"He put his badge down with the roll call book, and so we have some pictures when he was actually there, with him being added to it," Ricki said.
But he's more than an etched-in name.
"I hate that it came down to his line-of-duty death for the whole world to see the Dom we all knew," Ricki said.
She said people in Bluffton got along with "Dom" from day one.
"I met a young gentleman who hit the 'three-strike rule' more than once and Dom never gave up on him, and he is clean," Ricki said. "He is doing well and he wanted to reach out and make sure that I knew how much Dom meant to him."
Dominic was a husband, father, coach, volunteer firefighter, and a friend to anyone and everyone.
"To wrestling in my kitchen with some of the teenage boys, to Nerf gun wars with the neighbors' kids, that's the side of Dom that needs to be out there," Ricki said.
On April 28, Interstate 75 in Bluffton will be officially dedicated as the Dominic Francis Memorial Highway.
"It's a huge eye-opening thing to many of us around here that we need to honor the people like Dom before they're gone," Ricki said. "Because he did so much for so many people and I think, even myself, sometimes took for granted how outstanding of a human being he was."