for injuries. I make space for the camaraderie. It warms my heart.
THIS season is especially poignant. Exactly one year ago this month, my son Christopher suffered a severe injury to his knee. He ruptured his ACL and tore his meniscus in two places. It was his junior year, and it was horrible.
His teammates and his brothers did not disappoint. He had to be carried to the car and into the house after that game by his big brother, Gavin. We all lay in the first-floor guest bedroom because he couldn’t walk the stairs, and we cried. We mourned over a season that he wouldn’t have, playing side by side with his little brother, Declan. We discussed that life cannot be defined by our sports, our work or things that are exterior reflections of what we are internally. We knew it was bad. We knew the road to recovery was going to be long and painful.
His surgery lasted almost 6 hours. When the surgeon came in to talk to me, he said “This was a very serious injury. I have rebuilt it. IT will be stronger than it was before. He has to do the work.”
His entire team came over and surrounded his bed the Friday night after surgery, all still in their uniforms fresh off the field. He was still high from the anesthesia and enjoyed the company and the support. By 8 am the next morning he was screaming in pain. They had taken parts of his quad muscle and his IT band to reconstruct his knee. There is NOTHING harder in life than watching your child suffer.