13TH March 2023

Baseball - Friends - Timeless

There is no word for a parent who loses a child

Another Choate teammate lost a life this week. Not his, not a parent or sibling, but in this case a child. I can imagine no greater pain in life.

A wife who loses a husband is called a widow.
A husband who loses a wife is called a widower.
A child who loses his parents is called an orphan.
There is no word for a parent who loses a child.
That’s how awful the loss is.
– Jay Neugeboren – An Orphan’s Tale – 1976

Some solace, perhaps, comes from another Choate grad’s remarks at this week’s Oscars. Jamie Lee Curtis said… “Let me just be honest, I don’t believe in a world where there are a bunch of people looking down on us. I think we are them in our actions and in our deeds and in our ideas. I am a proud product of them and I know they would be incredibly proud of me.”

Then she burst into what she said was a Hungarian song – her grandparents were Hungarian immigrants to the US.

I think souls can last as long as you remember them.