Y’all. I joke a lot about this race…about vodka and toilets and toenails.
Let me tell you something I don’t joke about.
Have you ever gotten that call in the middle of the night? The one no one ever EVER wants to get?
My friend Megan messaged me in the middle of the night in November 2017, just a month before we were to leave to go to Everest Base Camp, with the news that her 15-year-old stepson had died in an ATV accident.
You guys. I’m a mom of 4, so you know it hit me hard.
And Drake was one of those kids. A quick grin and kind word for everyone. Friendly. Funny. Smart. Athletic.
A light. Do you know what I mean? The kid was a LIGHT.
He had every possible future in front of him.
And then he was gone.
To say it’s painful, that it’s agonizing, are too gentle of words for what Rob & Megan went through. Are still going through.
I’m a writer, but sometimes words fail me. So today I’m going to borrow some lyrics from the Broadway show Hamilton:
There are moments that the words don't reach There is suffering too terrible to name You hold your child as tight as you can And push away the unimaginable.
The moments when you're in so deep It feels easier to just swim down…
And you learn to live with the unimaginable.
Drake—jersey #16—will never be forgotten.
One of the ways the Goetz family is honoring Drake’s memory is by creating a scholarship in his name at the beloved Canterbury School he attend, and where Rob still teaches.
Megan and I are running the Fire & Ice Ultramarathon to raise funds for the Drake Goetz Memorial scholarship. We’re asking people to donate to the scholarship by “sponsoring” us on a per mile basis.
Can you give $5/mile? $1/mile? A nickel per mile? $10 total? It doesn’t matter. Any amount helps get the scholarship closer to being available.
I know none of you knew Drake (heck, a lot of you don’t even know me), but if you’d be willing to do this, I’d consider it an honor.
Info can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/311136432878547/
And believe me, I’m going to get every single one of those 150 miles. Just sayin’
For Drake, because I believed he’d do it with us if he could.
For a light.
Gone too soon.