David Mitchell Benner-Johnson

David was born July 15, 1989. From the moment he looked into my eyes and gave me his loving smile he captured my heart for all time. He has had similar effect on everyone he has met. He had a normal childhood for today's child in that he experienced shared custody by his Mom and Dad. He had many ups and downs that affected him throughout his life. He expressed an avid interest in music while still in elementary school and surprisingly began playing the trumpet as part of the school band. Surprising because he had asthma. In the next several years he learned to play the flute, the drums, the keyboard and his final instrument of preference, the guitar. He took a few professional lessons but mostly taught himself while playing the guitar with his friends or listening to music and playing along. He became quite accomplished with the various types of guitars. He was writing his own music, recording it and posting some of it to Sound Cloud under the name Not Mental. I, of course, find his music quite good. In the course of these several years he came to live with me, his Dad, permanently full time. He continued his schooling at Rockledge Elementary, then Tasker Middle School and Bowie High School. While in Bowie High School he developed personal issues that had been affecting him for years and he dropped out of school as a result. Spending his time with friends, mostly at home. He completed his High School Education by completing the courses and obtaining his GED in 2006. In the spring of 2007 he wanted to get a job and subsequently worked briefly for Giant Food Services as a stock clerk. He also worked at Burger King briefly and as a telemarketer at which he did very well but was not suited to pressuring people. From high school through 2010 he was developing a great deal of anxiety about what he could accomplish and turned primarily to his music and spent most of his time playing drums and ultimately only guitar. He also developed a problem with alcohol as an escape from his anxiety. Unlike most people his body could not tolerate the alcohol and it effected his liver which nearly cost him in life in 2011 and 2012. In 2012 he received an urgently needed liver transplant that saved his life once more and put him back on the road to health. Most of the music you may listen to of David's on Sound Cloud under the name Not Mental is music he wrote on his own and through interaction with his many friends. Most posted this past year. It seems that all of the medications he has been taking and his anxiety have finally got the better of him and my greatest fear has come about. David died July 2, 2015 in the early morning hours. All that knew him have known a loving, understanding, forgiving, fiercely loyal, fun loving friend of the best kind. With all the difficulties he has experienced in life he has rarely faltered in being the exceptional person that he is. As his Dad, I have known unconditional love from my son. My son that also has my unconditional love for eternity. Words cannot express the loss that I know realizing that for a time at least I will not have his warm hugs and sweet kisses.