This story has more details ..... Thoughts and Prayers with Coach Dungy, his Family and the Colts Organization
Posted on 12/22/2005 1:14:17 PM PST by beyond the sea
I have watched my parents bury two of my four siblings, the most recent just six weeks ago, when we laid to rest my brother. He would have celebrated a birthday on Thursday. I have witnessed the raw emotion that accompanies such a tragic event.
So when the ESPN.com editors dispatched an e-mail Thursday morning, seeking a reactionary column to the death of James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and his wife, Lauren, I approached the laptop keyboard with this firsthand reality: Not even the greatest literary giants of this or any other time are capable of crafting words sufficient to assuage the profound grief that is inherent to the passing of any parent's child.
Admittedly more hack than wordsmith am I, so there isn't a single syllable of this column that can adequately console the Dungy family on their loss, or even remotely make sense of the situation. Editors have a pet term, "weighing in," on such stories. But words, even the sort of eloquent prose of which I'm rarely capable, carry little gravitas at these times.
To say nothing, though, in such cases is to essentially be as hollow as the hollow words themselves, and so some sincere effort is surely in order.
There is a devastating incongruity that transpires when the circle of life suddenly comes unraveled, and parents are called upon to bid an early farewell to a child. The celebrity imposed upon Tony Dungy and his family because of his station in life will neither lessen nor exacerbate what certainly must be the most painful experience imaginable.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...
I can't even imagine what the Dungy family is going through. I hope that everyone's thoughts and prayers are with the family. Also, I hope your thoughts and prayers are with our service men and women all around the world. The Dungys get attention because of Tony's notoriety, but our troops deserve our thoughts every day!
My sister lost an 8 year old daughter about 20 years ago. It is as bad as he says. But she was (and is) a woman of great faith. I do not see how now believers could endure it. She clearly drew strength for the Heavenly Father.
Over the years, she has shared her story and helped others to get through their grief.
Than you for posting this.
Touching piece. My parents lost their daughter 15 years ago. Losing my sister was overwhelming for me, yet seeing my parents in such excruciating emotional pain compounded it. They've both passed away since, but a part of them died the day their daughter died.
You cannot get through it without the three F's: faith, family, and friends.
Well, I can relate personally to this saddest of all possible griefs.
In addition, I can identify at least one giant of literature who also happened to experience this grief, and history does not tell us if he was able to "assuage" his own grief.
But he did leave a treasure of poems in the attempt : Victor Hugo.
I know you know, Friend.
Deepest sympathy to the Dungy family.
My own daughter died 10 years ago, age 30, leaving two small children. I know the loss feeling, the helplessness. Yet I also know the love of God in my life and in hers. I can find empathy with the Dungy's, yet even my own experience is not enough to comfort or console them. I pray God's blessing on them, and an outpouring of his love, as they pass through this heart-rending experience.
Prayers going up and out.
I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon..I'm not.. I'm sorry for his loss..but all this attention is beng paid merely becuase of his dad's celebrity...We have too much of that cult of celebrity in this country...Where is the public outcry for the families of the more than 2000 brave troops who have paid the ultimate sacrifice so that w can enjoy NFL games in safety and freedom..sorry..but it's just far too..what's the word I want...phoney..
Yes.............. they are in my thoughts. I have a great radio guy (Quinn in The Morning) here in Pittsburgh, and he has been playing phone calls from the guys and girls over in Iraq every day now for a good while. They sound like they are in a great frame of mind but of course they miss their families.
Yes....
***
one more time ......
When katie couric's husband died, we were supposed to handle her with kid gloves.
If not a member of the press, anyone else is fair game.
Merry Christmas.
Very emotional article.
I cannot even imagine the pain. I have three little boys and losing any of them is the worst fear imaginable.
Any of you FRiends who have lost children, and I know some of you who have, know that pain with devestating familiarity.
Faith would be all that would save me.
Most sincere condolences to the Dungy family.
Related to that, I often wonder how many of the same people who go tsk, tsk at the paparazzi photographers, are regular consumers of ET, Access Hollywood and the National Enquirer.
And while we're being curmudgeonly, can someone tell professional writer Len Pasquarelli that a reactionary column would be written on a typewriter by a guy who wants to go back to the Wing T?
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