Dagmar Midcap puts in her notice at WGCL-TV
Dagmar Midcap in 2008. CREDIT: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Dagmar Midcap, the popular weather reader on CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, turned in her notice with the TV station this morning.
Her bosses weren’t there so she’s not sure when her last day will be. Reached Friday afternoon, Steve Schwaid, WGCL-TV news director, said she is still under contract and had no other comment.
Midcap, who arrived at WGCL in 2007, said the death of her boyfriend, who took his own life in July 2009, precipitated this departure. (For respect for the family, she requested we not release his name.)
She has been meeting with a grief counselor and therapists to grapple with her loss. She has nightmares and has been unable to sleep soundly. She said she takes medication and sleep aids.
“I can’t keep doing that,” she said. “It’s starting to affect me on the air. I can’t think on the air.”
She said she also may have some stress-related vocal cord damage she’s worried might be permanent.
“Doctors told me my body is breaking down,” she said in an emotional interview at the Silver Skillet in Midtown Friday just minutes after she had handed in her resignation. “I can’t stay here. It’s too difficult for me to move forward.”
She said WGCL has been a wonderful opportunity, but she said she can’t cope with being in the city where she fell in love, where everything reminds her of her late boyfriend.
In March 31, 2008, just a year after arriving at the station, she signed a four-year contract through 2012. (She said the station wanted her to stay five.) The station and viewers embraced her. After moving her to evenings, management plastered her face on billboards.
“My job has been to make people happy,” she said. The notes she’s gotten, from the 100-year-old man to the 20-year-old woman, say “I gave them joy at the end of the day, a smile. That was my job.” After his death, “it was difficult to find that joy.”
She said she has been negotiating the past few months to get out of her contract early but had been unable to come up with a date both sides could mutually agree on.
Midcap met her boyfriend in 2007 soon after she arrived. He was a neighbor. They fell in love almost immediately. Their first date was Martinis & Imax at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. They visited Stone Mountain Park, a favorite spot for him.
“We were inseparable,” she said. “He was everything to me. He was my best friend.”
But she sensed his fragility and tried to open up his world. They traveled to Charleston, S.C., Asheville, N.C., Seaside, Fla, and the North Georgia mountains. She bought a home just outside Decatur in hopes he would join her.
The last time she saw him, she said, he had arrived at her home, flowers and an apple pie from Whole Foods in hand. He apologized to her for his negativity and promised they’d always be together. “I thought he was making a breakthrough,” she said. “I didn’t understand what he was really saying.”
Midcap found out about his death July 2009, during the 4 p.m. newscast in her news director’s office. She collapsed in shock. She stayed off air for 11 days.
Coming back, she said, was incredibly difficult. But she put on a happy face and viewers hardly noticed until six months later. “I had one bad night. I wasn’t as perky. I was on the verge of tears on the air,” she said.
Colleagues, though, noticed her withdrawn behavior off air. She’d sometimes cry at her desk, she said.
Two weeks ago, she visited R. Thomas, a restaurant she and her boyfriend enjoyed. It was an attempt to try to get past the pain, she said. Instead, she got sick.
She isn’t sure what her plans are next. She said she has no job in hand and isn’t sure where she is going, though the West Coast is likely. She had worked in Los Angeles and her hometown of Vancouver before coming to Atlanta.
“I have no manager,” she said. “I’ve got nothing.”
Later, in a moment of humor, she added, “I may be picking grapefruits out there. But I’ll do what I need to do that’s right for me. I have to take my health into account.”
One thing she knows she’ll do is work with animals. “They have no malice,” she said, her face lighting up momentarily. “They need our help. They do what they do.”
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304 comments Add your comment
david byrne
September 3rd, 2010
10:43 pm
Please, take care of yourself & sorry for your loss. YOU have such a BEAUTIFUL SPIRIT. Time heals things & a change of environment. Go back to where your support is & YOU’LL take it a day at a time. Each day WILL get EASIER, I PROMISE…Never met you, but, i can tell you are one of the GOOD ONES…SMILES…David Byrne
John
September 3rd, 2010
10:53 pm
One more thing, I remember seeing a video of you on that plane flying into a hurricane. I was amazed that you did that! I knew that to finally fly into the calm eye you had to go through so much stormy weather. To do this took courage, faith and a beilef in others. Dagmar, take those things with you on your next adventure!
mamaj
September 3rd, 2010
11:00 pm
This just makes me absolutely sad. I had no idea. You are such a professional, one would have had to be a mind reader to know that this had happened to you, by the demeanor you displayed everyday, giving the weather. Your voice was so calming and sweet, it didn’t even matter what you were saying about the weather. You will be truly, sorely missed. I wish you all the best, and may you land in a safe and soft place, befitting the beautiful person that you are.
loumar
September 3rd, 2010
11:05 pm
I had no idea………Dagmar, I wish you the best. Vaya Con Dios!
Mike Morgan
September 3rd, 2010
11:08 pm
Like others – my heart goes out to her. This is surely a difficult circumstance. I wish she could stay but understand her circumstances.
mac
September 3rd, 2010
11:13 pm
So, so sad. My heart goes out to her. I hope she is able to find peace as she changes gears and leaves Atlanta.
Tommy Young
September 3rd, 2010
11:24 pm
Dagmar, I can understand your hurt and heartache. My wife died suddenly after being diagnosed with lung cancer. She meant the world too me, and after being single for 31 years, and meeting her, I knew she was my soul mate. I was blessed to hold her hand as she breathed her last breath, then, seven months later I held her grandchild in my hands.
Death affects us all in many different ways, I had to deal with the same demons you are, and having to consult counseling. The comparison between you and I are this…life is for the living, you’re no different than I am, and the other millions of people who have to go on with their life.
I still live in the same home, and walk by her picture everyday. I remembrance of her smile, and when she was happy and pain free. I hope you find the strength to deal with this loss, and find your peace, and happiness. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t mourn her death. She was 45 years young.
Best of luck, and all your loyal fans will miss your smiling face and bright smile. I hope you find what you’re looking for.
Greg
September 3rd, 2010
11:34 pm
Hope you get well and come back. We will miss you while you are gone.
Pamela
September 3rd, 2010
11:47 pm
Dagmar, wishing you the best in every thing you do and where ever you might go!
You are a ray of sunshine and we will miss you ! Bless you and our prayers are with you in whatever you do! Good luck and God speed!
Amanda
September 3rd, 2010
11:50 pm
I’m so sorry about what happened. I pray you will get through this. Good luck in your move, you will be missed.
Atlantaphotog
September 4th, 2010
12:04 am
Dagmar, you will be missed and I FULLY understand your reasons for leaving. It’s more common than people realize that sometimes when you lose someone you have a special connection with, that you just can’t move on unless you completely removed yourself from the environment you were in around that person (an apartment or home, neighborhood, places you went, and even an entire city). Heck sometimes even the loss of a very close pet can cause someone to have to move in order to be able to not suffer a collapse of their own – much less a person. I’ve been there, so I know.
Good luck to you. Don’t pick L.A. though – it’ll just drag you down more. Try something new. Denver, Portland, etc.
Thelma Limehouse
September 4th, 2010
12:16 am
Dagmar, sorry to hear you’re leaving, but do understand. I lost my husband suddenly to a brain aneurysm several years ago, and last year, decided that my heart was no longer in the job that I’d held for 15 years. I left that job and though I don’t have another one yet, do know that it was the right decision for me. By the grace of God, I’m managing ok. Best of luck to you.
The Carnivore
September 4th, 2010
12:19 am
Dagmar – I know your boyfriend’s family well and am aware of all the pain all of you have been through this past year. I was involved with preserving your memories via photo scanning within the last year, and I know you were very close to him. Best wishes to you in the future … life is long and you will recover from this blow. He was a good man, and it will take some time to move on.
Rick
September 4th, 2010
12:25 am
Wow! Dagmar, you’ve done an admirable job of presenting yourself in such a positive way. I’m sorry to hear you’ve had to endure such grief. I wish you well and am sure that wherever you move will be the better for it. Thanks and Good Luck.
dano
September 4th, 2010
12:31 am
please don’t leave…you are my all time favorite weather girl ! if you leave then I will never watch the weather again and I may get caught in a thunderstorm and get soaked,,,so, see you can’t leave…just take a break, go on a long hike by yourself, search your soul, find your inner being, come to terms with your loss, your love,your grief and muster yourself back to reality, and get back on that horse…you will find happiness again! anyway, who said life was fair….
OldSnarky
September 4th, 2010
1:22 am
Dagmar, you will be missed. God be with you as you move on!
Lightfinger
September 4th, 2010
2:26 am
I love you, Supergirl!
Steve
September 4th, 2010
3:02 am
Best of luck Dagmar. My prayers are with you. Hope you find your health wherever your journeys take you!
You will be missed here in Atlanta.
Kevin H
September 4th, 2010
3:31 am
Obviously this is well moderated but there are enough that loved Dagmar in this town. I’ve never heard this story before so I’m very sad to hear it because she deserves well. I feel sorry for all the haters but thats the world these days. Good luck to you Dagmar and thank you for the years you gave this town.
J.R.
September 4th, 2010
3:36 am
Dagmar was a good Atlanta TV personality, and I hate that her time here ended with such a tragedy. But I wish her the best, and I know that she will move past this to become an even better, stronger, happier person than she already appears to be.
DEWSTARPATH
September 4th, 2010
3:54 am
So sad to hear. This answered my earlier question
a few days ago on this blog about why she was
leaving… but I had no idea. I wish her all the best,
and hope she can find happiness again one day.
She has so much to offer.
My condolences also go out to the family of her friend.
marcus
September 4th, 2010
5:50 am
she was good and i really enjoyed her on the telecast; i’d be concerned in her inability to move on from something that she obviously had no control over.
J.Byrd jr.
September 4th, 2010
5:52 am
Dagmar, Many of us know what you are going thru because we have things that we have had to deal with in our life that should not have been. It took me a long time to realize it but I found that when you are down you are not out and if you really feel down, look up. When things get to the point to where you can’t handle it, put it into Gods hands and don’t snatch it back. You may think you have nothing but you are wrong. You have a world full of fans, friends and admirers that wish you the best and have you in their prayers. The loss of a loved one is so painful and hard to get over, but you must realize that if you let it dwell in your mind it can and will eat at you like a cancer. One final thought, maybe God has bigger and better plans for you. Godspeed
B-Bro
September 4th, 2010
5:59 am
We love you Dagmar and if you do get to read this may I add that praying help much for me with the lost of my brother and my stepson and then with my nephew and my Father.
lkjlkj
September 4th, 2010
6:04 am
Wow, very sad. Wish her the best.
HARDWORKINGAL
September 4th, 2010
6:13 am
Wow. There’s hope for ATL yet. When this first broke here a couple of weeks ago, the negative comments were 50/50. Bless you Dagmar. My 19 year old son says if he had you by his side, well … .
Ga Granny
September 4th, 2010
6:15 am
Lost my husband suddenly in 2007. It was difficult for me too. I quit a very good job a few months after his death. I just couldn’t handle the stress, pain, and I was not totally there for my employer. The first step in healing is taking care of yourself and recognizing that you need to do so. Good luck and heartfelt prayers.
Producer
September 4th, 2010
6:19 am
All the best to you. I hope you find peace!
Fred
September 4th, 2010
6:31 am
Imoved from Fla in 2007 to Dawsonville,Ga The first time I saw Dagmar I was in Love I will miss her very much I wish her the best I know time does heal working with aniamals will help they have a way to bring out the best in people GOD be with you Dagmar
Rufio
September 4th, 2010
6:35 am
Wow……I admire Dagmar’s strength. What an honest open heart she has ! Best of luck in your future. I hope you can find the peace you are seeking. I have a Golden Retriever that matches your hair perfectly and he is a great listener ! If you are looking for another member of your pack I can’t recommend a better breed to take care of you. I know…..My retriever took care of me for 2 years after back surgery.
Wishing Well
September 4th, 2010
6:38 am
Dagmar–
I know how difficult it can be to keep doing something when your heart just isn’t into it
anymore. You HAVE to move on, just to save what sanity you have left. You will do well in
whatever you decide to pursue, and we wish you well
in your endeavors.
HollywoodDon
September 4th, 2010
6:46 am
Dagmar always brightened my mornings….hate to see her go…….
Sam
September 4th, 2010
6:52 am
Dagmar, I am so sorry for your loss. You are in our prayers. Now take a look at all the posts…..so many positive comments on how you impact people.
God bless you, young lady.
electricbluebird.com
September 4th, 2010
6:58 am
Dagmar, take care of yourself. I am so sorry to hear of your loss. You have so many fans who are thinking of you.
Lala
September 4th, 2010
7:04 am
I’m so sorry for her loss. I personally know how difficult it is to lose a love one so unexpectedly. Good luck to Dagmar
Kirk N
September 4th, 2010
7:16 am
I never watched the weather before Dagmar except on golf days. Sorry for your loss and the pain. Live goes on. We will miss you. Good Luck.
Steve
September 4th, 2010
7:21 am
Given the state of technology today, one may live anywhere & work remotely with ease. Shame on the station for failing to compromise. Bonne chance, Dagmar.
Buffalo Guy
September 4th, 2010
7:31 am
Dagmar, no matter where you are or where you’ve been there is always someplace left to go. And going forward is the best option. God speed.
Thyra
September 4th, 2010
7:38 am
I was quickly reviewing these comments and I hope Dagmar gets to read them or have a copy. There is so much love and sympathy from everyone here. My hope is this tragedy will take Dagmar into a brighter future.
David Elmore, C PH T
September 4th, 2010
7:46 am
Dagmar, I will miss you. I know how it is. I lost my wife in 2006 eight days before my birthday. Were married for only five years at the time. Time will heal but never remove the pain.
I pray that God’s grace and love will envelope you to give you the strength and courage to continue on.
Hold your head up and be brave.
Buck & Deb
September 4th, 2010
7:52 am
I understand, my husband’s Dad took his life many years ago. There is only one way to ease your pain and that is through the love of God. Put your trust in Him. He will have the answers. Read His Word and He will direct you. His loving hands will lead you. You will always have precious memories of your boyfriend, but you will also have the shoulders of the Lord to cry on. Trust God He Loves YOU more than anyone. We’ll be praying for you!
nes
September 4th, 2010
7:54 am
Dagmar, just know you brought a cheerful and great weather caption everyday! so much doom and gloom on news all the time it was refreshing to see you and that beautiful smile! May god bless and give you peace and understanding to this tragic event in your life and that you find the right place for you in the future.
Football Fan
September 4th, 2010
8:06 am
Wow. I did not know any of her tragic past. Good luck to her and hopefully she can find peace.
Winni
September 4th, 2010
8:07 am
Thank you, Rodney, for the very sensitively written story. Dagmar, I am so sorry to hear of your loss, your sorrow and pain. You will be in my prayers as you take time for healing.
Afan
September 4th, 2010
8:14 am
Dagmar,
I pray you find the peace of mind you are looking for. From my own experience I can tell you that you should bear no guilt. You attempted to rescue a wounded soul, but his pain was to deep to heal. Sorry to see you go.
Smokey
September 4th, 2010
8:29 am
Dagmar, I hope you read these posts to see how much of positive affecte you had on people. You are beautiful on the outside and from what I know of you, a beautiful sweet and sensitive soul on the inside. You did your job well of making people happy. Please take care of yourself and good luck to you in the future.
Andy
September 4th, 2010
8:38 am
Dagmar, I’m sorry to hear about your loss and wish you the best in your future.
Chris O'Hanion
September 4th, 2010
8:54 am
The smile that shined through must have been so hard for Dagmar.Thanks for her errorts in such a difficult time.She gave so much of herself so others could be happy.I pray she find comfort and joy in her life again when this is all over.
al
September 4th, 2010
9:02 am
My thoughts and prayers are with you Dagmar! You will be missed on air in Atlanta.
Captain Herb
September 4th, 2010
9:02 am
Before judging others (and everyone seemed to have an opinion about Dagmar), we need to remember that we do not always know what they are going through. Godspeed Dagmar.