As floodwaters swept through a strip mall by the local Walmart in Petal, Mississippi, Rachael Floyd’s white SUV slipped under the water, just in front of the parking lot for a Supercuts and a local liquor store. Though several bystanders waded into the treacherous waters in an attempt to save the mother of three, the flash flooding had grown too intense, and her vehicle flipped into a culvert, leaving her unable to escape.
WDAM reported that rescue workers found the 36-year-old woman’s body later that day, on May 25. Floyd’s death compounds an already painful tragedy. Her husband, Ben Floyd, a Hattiesburg-based therapist, is in the advanced stages of an aggressive form of brain cancer. Rachael was his caregiver too, the anchor of a family already in crisis.
Ann Elizabeth Gillespie, a restaurateur in Jackson and a friend of Floyd’s from college, was already managing a GoFundMe to support the family through Ben’s diagnosis and treatment. The news devastated her, a senseless loss of a dear friend and an indefatigable caregiver.
Now, the fundraising campaign continues, rededicated to Rachael, in an attempt to build a future for three young boys—Joshua, 5, Gilead, 3, and Mayhew, 2, who will grow up with only her memory. So far, people have donated over $143,000 to the family’s GoFundMe, with much of it raised since Rachael’s death.
“ This is an abnormal tragedy,” Gillespie told the Mississippi Free Press on May 28. “It is not the everyday passing of somebody that you know. Coupled with Ben’s cancer, it’s all just unfathomable.”
‘It Doesn’t Make Sense’
Gillespie is haunted by Rachael Floyd’s death, at times furious, at others depressed. In an interview with the Mississippi Free Press, her grief lingered, tinging her voice with an unsteady sorrow. “I think about her fighting to stay alive for her children,” she said. “Why? Why this way? It doesn’t make sense.”
Like many of Rachael’s closest friends, she has found distraction from the grief by throwing herself into the work of fundraising for the children. “It’s been exciting to see—this is tangible help for these kids and for this family.”
But nothing can erase the sorrow of her loss. Perhaps nothing ever will. “ It’s something that I will have to grapple with for a long time,” Gillespie said. “And I’ll probably never be at peace with it.”
Gillespie first met Rachael while attending Mississippi State University together, finding her unapologetic force of will inspiring. “ What I loved about Rachel so much was how good she was at just being her whole self,” Gillespie said. “She was just a breath of fresh air—not what I was used to in college, where people are so caught up in trying to be cool. She just didn’t care at all about that. But that’s what made her so cool!”
Rachael met Ben in college, too, but it wasn’t until after both graduated and until Rachael spent a year abroad in Germany that their relationship began. “She came home, and Ben was waiting for her,” Gillespie said. “And the rest is history.”
The two made a perfect match. “He’s a preacher’s kid, always deeply interested in furthering his education,” Gillespie explained. “The kind of person who would give anybody the shirt off his back.” That compassion served him well in his profession in therapy, she said, and Ben also pursued higher education in theology, purely out of passion.
Those interests—a curious love of learning, education and a devout Christian faith united them. “They’re both avid readers,” Gillespie said. And there arrives the grief once more. “Rachael is a really good writer,” she said, pausing. “I’m sad I don’t get to see what she comes up with. I just always thought she’d write some books when she had time.”
The duties of motherhood and caregiving were Rachael’s priority, but Gillespie hoped that she would eventually find space to write. “You don’t have time for much at all,” she said. “But I was just waiting for her to do it. I knew she was going to write a book someday.”
Across social media, friends and family mourn the loss of a friend, a mother and a wife, a talented writer, teacher and aspiring therapist.
And an obituary written by Rachael’s family captured her many roles.
“There was no role Rachael couldn’t fill. She was a writer, creator, nurse, teacher, chauffeur, accountant, therapist-in-training and the person everyone called when life fell apart. She had recently been accepted into school and was preparing to continue her and Ben’s work helping others through therapy—a path that reflected her lifelong instinct to care for people deeply and honestly.”
‘They’re Beautiful Human Beings’
Rachael’s memorial came on May 30, at Woodland Presbyterian Church. After the funeral, Gillespie says she had the opportunity to reflect on Rachael’s life and her family’s future with friends old and new.
“ Out of everything that’s happening in our world right now, we need Ben and Rachel here,” Gillespie said. “They’re just the type of people that we need here on this earth, and we’re losing them, and that just feels like an unquantifiable loss.”
Whatever future the Floyd children face, there is no doubt that they come from a deeply beloved family.
“They’re just beautiful human beings, both of them,” Gillespie said.
