“Everybody needs someone beside them shining like a lighthouse from the sea…”
Dateline: We’ve lost a brother…
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
– Mark Twain
Me and you, all of us, were the first Internet on this planet.
I think, in our heart, our collective hearts, we know that it is all up to us to take care of one another.
In my soul I know we were given a thumb so we could help, not kill, each other.
To cry is proof of a soul.
To love is proof of a soul.
To help another human being is why we were given that soul.
“…brother let me be your shelter…”
A couple weeks ago we lost a brother angler, a Virginia B.A.S.S. Nation Angler, 45-year-old Brian Harold in a boating accident during a local Nation tournament on Lake Gaston in North Carolina.
No one ran into each other, one of those crazy big waves hit the boat and spun it violently sideways and both anglers in the boat were tossed out.
Jeff Hitt in the boat with Brian was quickly found and pulled out of the water, Brian was not. Both had life vests on in the boat, 10 days later Brian’s body was pulled from the lake.
Onshore he left behind a wife of 16 years, Kathy, and two children, Clay, 14, and Bradley who turned 12 the week searchers were combing the lake for the body of his dad.
Cry now.
Jeff Lugar, B.A.S.S. Nation angler, member of the Rockingham Bass Anglers club in Harrisonburg, Va., and a friend of mine, fished with Brian since 1998…
“db he was like a brother to me, we went through all the things in life that buddies go through other than just fishing, like a brother, man…”
I wrote down that quote a few minutes before Jeff emailed me a photo of him and Brian fishing together, and to my horror when I opened the attachment I saw that even though I didn’t know his name, I knew Brian as well, joked with him and Jeff at a Nation event, shook the man’s hand.
Shook the man’s hand.
Jeff ate dinner with Brian the night before the accident, launched with him at 7 a.m. that morning, took a cell phone call at 9:05 a.m. that his buddy was missing, drove around the lake looking for his friend’s body.
Never found him.
Cry again.
“…I’ll never leave you all alone…”
This is the face of you and me.
This is the face of a loving father, loving husband, a working stiff plant maintenance electrician, working for the man most of his life, fishing when he can.
Not famous.
Not wealthy.
You and me.
Now comes the tricky part, I could write around this, throw some words together that would move you, dance some, juke some, but I’m going to be up front with you, words now from his fishing buddy:
“Both Brian and Kathy worked outside the home, both needed to, dual income family like many of us, earned about the same each…”
So this is the note I scribble {1/2 the family income gone} okay then Jeff says this:
“…Clay his oldest was born with PONS, he is severely disabled, bed ridden since birth, can’t walk or crawl, has a feeding tube, can’t speak, needs 24-hour care that both Brian and Kathy pretty much split between the two of them.”
Google PONS if you must, I did, seems to be a rare brain disease with a bunch of big words, most born with it don’t live long. Jeff said Clay at 14 is a miracle, “You know db, Brian never complained, just spoke of love, man, just spoke of love.”
Bradley, the youngest son has been diagnosed with autism.
That’s it for me invading this family’s privacy.
“…I can be the one you call…”
“Never be so busy as not to think of others.”
– Mother Teresa
“db, when I hear about the accident, heard it was with a B.A.S.S. Nation member in my home state of Virginia, heard the details and knew that the same kind of freak accident could happen to any of us I knew I had to help but didn’t really know how right away…”
I’m driving to the Elite event here at Bull Shoals, Elite angler and friend, John Crews is talking to me through the Tundra’s speakers.
“…then, then when I heard about their young son and autism I knew exactly what I could do to help…”
I’m biased when it comes to John Crews, think so much of him that he sits as a board member of Tackle The Storm, know of his heart, know of his smarts, know of his passion for helping those with autism.
John took it upon himself to sell a handmade lure with the Autism Puzzle logo on its side for $500, and John matched that with $500 and will send $1,000 to Brian’s family to help out.
I told John that I’ll pay a buck a pound of his bass catch weight here at Bull Shoals and will also send that on to help the family.
You can help a brother too.
Just got off the cellphone with Mike Bryant, the Prez of the Virginia B.A.S.S. Nation who told me that they have a charity fund set up and if you send them a check and write on it, “In Memory Of Brian Harold,” they will cash the check and hand Kathy Harold the cash.
No fees, no skim, 100 percent of your hard earned money will go to help Kathy and the kids.
Mike Bryant is not the type of guy who will let any monkey business happen with your donation.
“…when you’re low…”
“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.”
– Albert Schweitzer
In 1982 as a news guy I covered 123 dead bodies spread throughout the year on the “Noon,” “Five,” “Five-Thirty,” “Six” and “Eleven.”
And yeah, I counted. In a calendar book I kept in my briefcase I would write 1 and circle it on the day it happened.
One day I wrote 5 and circled it.
Of the bodies, I stopped counting years ago.
Faith peters out with triple digit body counts.
I remember exactly the moment I lost all faith in human beings, a week old girl cooked a minute twenty on high in a microwave does that to you.
I wrote of you, all you out there who were not me, as if I was looking at your butts through the glass of the monkey house at the zoo.
It took a bunch of men and women holding fish to bring me back from that edge, took you to start my slow walk back to faith, took you to get me to look at you once again as people, and not just stories.
One of us, a B.A.S.S. Nation family is hurting. We have no right to throw around that word “NATION,” if that is not what we are.
If that is not how we act.
I don’t look at the word, “NATION,” as some marketing ploy. I look at it as a pinky swear, a spit in your hand handshake.
If you have trouble I will come for you if I have trouble you will come for me….that’s NATION.
To help Kathy, Clay and Bradley make out a check to VIRGINIA B.A.S.S. NATION, write on it “In Memory of Brian Harold” and send it to:
Virginia Bass Nation
461 Triangle School Rd.
Chatham, VA 24531
John Crews will be sending them $1,000.
I’ll be sending a buck a pound for whatever John catches here.
I hope you send something as well.
I have faith in you because it is you who gave me faith back.
“…brother let me be your fortress.”
Brother
NEEDTOBREATHE
db
“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”
– Henry James