Mike Cahill enjoyed his work so much, it was worth the 60 miles each way from his home in Cameron to Fort Hood, family members said late Friday night.
"I work in a school, and I always pictured something like this more likely happening to me than to my dad," said Keely Vanacker, Cahill's older daughter.
It was around 11:15 p.m. Thursday when military personnel arrived at Cahill's home to inform his wife of 37 years, Joleen, that he had been killed in Thursday's shooting rampage at the base near Killeen.
The family, after watching initial re-ports on television, tried for hours without success to contact Cahill, who was a contracted civilian working on the base as a physician's assistant.
That afternoon, they learned that the shooting had taken place in the base's Soldier Readiness Center, the building where he worked, but no answers came until the chaplain was at the doorstep.
"He loved working with the soldiers," Vanacker said. "He really enjoyed being able to do something for them -- to see them coming back and see they got the medical services they need."
Cahill spent 20 years in the National Guard and had worked at Fort Hood for about four years, Vanacker said. Prior to working on base, he was a physician's assistant at a rural health clinic operated by Dr. Sidney Richardson.
"He loved it. My dad did rural health, and he loved it," she said, adding that encounters he had with patients in rural health clinics made him sympathetic to those who struggle with the high cost of health care.
"He saw what little care people got when they couldn't afford it, and he definitely thought that universal health care was needed in this country," she said.
When he wasn't caring for others, his daughter said, he enjoyed reading, among other things.
"If he wasn't working, he was at home. My mom's house looks like a library," she said. "From fiction to biographies -- politics, current events. He was just so involved and paid such close attention to things."
She recalled spending summers at a family cabin in Montana, where her mother is from, or at the lakes in Washington state, where Cahill's family is from.
Joleen and Mike Cahill had planned on retiring within the next four years or so.
"He was such a great dad, always there for us," Vanacker said. "He loved to talk and tell stories; he was just such a fun-loving guy."
Neighbors said the driveway of the Cahills' home was full most of the day Friday, with relatives, church members and concerned residents stopping by to offer condolences.
"We're so grateful for all our family and friends in Cameron," Vanacker said. "They've just been so helpful -- really gone above and beyond."
For now, the family still waits for more answers about why events unfolded as they did.
"I don't think anybody pictures their father or brother going like that," she said. "We're just waiting to hear what we can do next. Our dad will be missed."
Funeral arrangements are pending, but Vanacker said services would most likely be held in Cameron as well as in Washington or Montana.
Cahill is also survived by another daughter, a son and a grandson.
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