Daniel Robert Soltis

Daniel was our firstborn son, born on Friday, July 13th, 2001 at 3:05am. He was a tiny little thing, weighing just 6 pounds and 10 ounces, but the nurses commented that he was a long baby at 21 inches. He was so tiny, and quiet, and peaceful for the first few weeks of his life. Kevin and I thought the whole “baby thing” seemed pretty darn easy. And then Daniel developed his unique, strong, individual personality! He wanted to be held close all day long. He never wanted to be alone. I would put him in the Baby Bjorn and carry him around while I did all my housework for hours every day, just to keep him content. He found peace and contentment in being around those he loved, and he was a homebody even as a baby. He didn’t really like change, and he loved routine. In 2003, just twenty months after Daniel was born, his brother Matthew came into this world to complete our family and provide Daniel with a lifelong friend and confidante.

Growing up in our neighborhood, he had several nearby children to play with, and many of those children became his lifelong friends, sharing a bond that can just never be broken. He was lucky enough to have a blood brother, and several more “brothers” and “sisters” in his life. I was a stay-at-home mom until the boys were in middle school, so I was home all day with the kids. Every day the boys played with the neighbors from dawn until dusk. Daniel loved climbing trees, swimming in the pool on our deck, catching frogs in the pond, swinging on the playset in the backyard, and building forts in the backyard with old blankets. There was never a dull moment managing the daily chaos, but nothing brought me greater joy than knowing that the kids were building lifelong memories. Daniel would often tell me he had the best childhood ever.

As Daniel grew up, he enjoyed many sports and was very lean and athletic. Daniel loved to run. He had a natural ability as a runner, particularly sprinting. He played Pillo polo at the elementary school; outdoor and indoor soccer for four years; he was a Webelo in cub scouts and earned his Arrow of Light; he did club wrestling for two years and then wrestled for the 8th grade school team and actually won the district championship in his weight class. He was a fierce little competitor, and I would go to every wrestling match so I could be his biggest cheerleader. In high school, he ran track and field for two years and was an excellent sprinter. Daniel was a relatively shy, introverted person unless he really knew you. And if he knew you, and had the courage to open up to you, you were blessed enough to see his vibrant, colorful, humorous, loyal personality. He had many inside jokes with his close friends, and when I would see him spend time with those he loved and trusted I would see the vulnerable side of Daniel break down and the genuine, happy, trusting person would come out. Those are my favorite memories of Daniel. The deep laughter when he found something funny…the joy in his eyes when he smiled a true smile…the funny side of him that only his closest friends got to see because he was brave enough to let his guard down with those he loved. Daniel dated a couple of very nice, special young ladies in his senior year of high school but he had never fallen in love. We used to have several heart-to-heart conversations in the last several years of his life, and he was always hopeful that someday he would fall in love, get married, and have a family of his own. Family and extended family was so important to Daniel that he was really looking forward to having a wife and kids someday. He would often talk about “his kids” when referencing his future, and he always used to say “I hope my kids have a great childhood like I had. Those were the happiest days of my life”.

Daniel never served in the military, but he was a very patriotic, protective person. He loved this country and the freedoms we are fortunate enough to have. He would sometimes entertain the notion of joining the military after high school, but that didn’t end up being his path. He wasn’t a confrontational person at all, but he was ready to step in and protect someone he loved whenever needed. I remember his preschool teacher telling me he was going to be a police officer someday. He always felt like he had to be the “big brother” to Matthew or be protective of me and Matthew when Kevin was out of town. He wanted to be “the man” of the family in his absence, even when he was only a boy. He loved guns and shooting. In middle school, we actually built a wall of hay bales in our basement and Daniel would practice shooting first air soft guns, and then BB guns, at targets on the hay bales. He participated in a skeet shooting gun club during his high school years, and his very first job was at the gun club for his last two years of high school. After high school, Daniel would discuss career options with Kevin and me and he wanted to go into the trades. Traditional school and Daniel were not friends. He didn’t like bookwork and was definitely a more “hands on” learner. He expressed an interest in welding, so we helped him find a welding apprenticeship opportunity, and he got his very first “real”, full-time job as a welder at a company in Inkster called Nu-Core. Anyone who knew Daniel has heard numerous Nu-Core stories. This job was the most impactful experience of Daniel’s life. It pushed him out of his comfort zone in many ways, and he was able to realize that he had a genuine passion for welding. As an apprentice, he began by doing mostly shop work and learning how to prepare metals. But he was so determined to learn to weld that we bought a welder for the garage (and all the many gadgets that come with it) and we built a welding station. We were lucky enough to have a family member who had been a career welder, and he was absolutely instrumental in helping us get started. He was selfless in coming over on weekends and spent numerous hours patiently teaching us to set up the equipment and learn the basics of welding. Daniel would work full-time all day long, and then come home and weld for hours on end. He would go into work every day with welds on scrap metal to show his boss, and he would get feedback for improvement, and go back out there again the next day and keep at it. He completed an accelerated training program at the Detroit Training Center to become a MIG Production Welder, and then went to Washtenaw Community College and completed his certificate in welding with a 4.0 GPA, an absolutely incredible accomplishment for someone who hated traditional school.

Daniel’s family and close friends and extended family were so very important to him. Because he was very shy, and guarded, and didn’t let people in easily, when he spent time with family and friends, he was at his very best. He always loved when we hosted parties at our house with our closest friends and family, and he enjoyed going to family functions. He loved animals too. His guinea pig Oreo was his first real pet, and anytime he was sad or upset as a child he would just hold Oreo in his lap and softly pet her and it would bring him comfort. We’ve also had cats and dogs in the household, and 3 other guinea pigs, and now even a bird, and Daniel always enjoyed having the pets around.

Daniel told me once that the happiest day of his life was when he won the 8th grade wrestling district championship. And it showed on his face that day too. I have never seen him so proud of himself.

His biggest accomplishment as a man, was his skill at welding. He was so proud of all his welds; he took hundreds of pictures over the years of every single bead he ever ran. He saw himself growing as a welder, and being challenged over the years by harder work, and he had really found his passion.

After work hours, Daniel would come home to us and have dinner and we would all share stories of our day. And of course, we had to look at pictures of welds. But then, he would either play his X-Box games with friends or run on the treadmill in the basement if he had had a particularly stressful day, or he would take the motorcycle out for a ride or sit by a bonfire. Daniel liked fire (perhaps where the interest in welding began), and weapons, and motorcycles… all the things in life that are fearful to most people, but I always felt like he was trying to conquer his fears by facing them head-on. Don’t even get me started on the size of some of the bonfires him and his friends built in our backyard, and the times Kevin had to stand by with the hose ready and put some limits on the group. Oh, the things our neighbors have seen with the crazy boys and their friends! But we always preferred to have the group at our house, where we could supervise from a distance, knowing what they were doing and who they were with.

Daniel was a very hard-working, shy, trustworthy, loyal, funny person. He had some rocky moments in the later years of high school when he experimented with things that most teens do, but he changed his ways after high school. He did not drink or do any drugs. He was excited when he turned 21, not because he was of legal drinking age, but because he was finally eligible for a 401(k) plan at work. And he was a saver, very determined to save for a house of his own. He saved almost every penny of his paychecks and read books on finance and entrepreneurship and eventually wanted to own his own business someday. One of his favorite authors was Robert Kiyosaki, and we used to laugh about his favorite quote from one of the books, “We don’t work for money!”.

Daniel’s ambitions were to buy a house, start a family someday, and own a business. My heart breaks knowing that he will never achieve these goals, but I believe he is in a better place somewhere and our family longs to see him again someday and hold him close.

Daniel Robert Soltis of Canton, Michigan passed away unexpectedly on October 29, 2022 at the age of 21. He was born July 13, 2001 in Southfield, Michigan. Beloved son of Kevin and Mary Soltis. Loving brother of Matthew Soltis. Cherished grandson of the late Henry and the late Lillian Lenden Sr.; and Dorothy and the late Mike Soltis. Dearest nephew of Harry Lenden Jr., David (Jamie) Lenden, Deborah Lenden, Michael (Lana) Soltis, David (Jann) Soltis, and Susan Davies. Dear cousin of Leigh Soltis, Colin Soltis, Andrew Soltis, Samantha Davies, Brian Davies, Jack Lenden, and Luke Lenden. Visitation Saturday, November 5, 2022 from 2 - 8 pm with a funeral service at 7 pm at Neely-Turowski Funeral Home, 45100 Warren Rd., Canton, Michigan 48187.