Well, it’s that time of year. The Holidays are upon us and we find ourselves gathering with family and friends to wind down 2013. We’ll have some laughs and reflect on the great memories that were made during the year, but we’ll also pause to remember all the crap that came with lucky number 13.
Amongst the crap, we had a Marathon Bombing, a Typhoon in the Phillipines, 3 women were found after being held captive for 10 years in Cleveland OH, and North Korea was threatening to conduct Nuclear missile tests. Our sports teams won another World Series (this was good), lost in the Stanely Cup Finals (crap) and sent one of it’s players to jail on murder charges. Some of our fellow Andover-family members discovered they have cancer and are now fighting for thier lives, and the community joined together in sorrow for the family of David Vaughan.
All of this gives us good reason to look forward to 2014, but in case it wasn’t enough, last Wednesday our community was kicked in the nuts one last time. My good friends The Harty’s, lost their 8 year old son to Mitochondrial Disease. Matthew was an incredible kid, who brings a smile to my face whenever I think of him. If you had a chance to meet him, he would’ve instantly made you feel like you’d known him for years. He’d climb on your lap and tell you to help him with his video games, or he’d ask you to do something with him. Matty was a Honey Badger. Doctors said he wouldn’t live very long, but he proved them wrong. He raised the bar for mitochondrial disease.
Paul and Sarah are very special people who know that they were blessed to have Matthew with them for 8 years. They have something I call “The Harty Effect”. It’s their ability to make you want to be a better person because you see their values and you see the impact they have in life. Going forward, my personal goal is to work “The Harty Effect” into my repertoire. (Hopefully I’ll be half as effective as they are)
I wanted to share this with you guys because we “Badgers” are family. We’re macho on the outside, and we’re mommas boys on the inside. Paul has played with us on Thursday nights in the past and you can count on seeing him again in the future. Don’t treat him different because of this. Treat him like a Badger.
Here’s to 2014. (And 2013, Fuckin Suck It.)
Happy Holidays ya Jerks.
To learn more about Mitochondrial disease, go to: http://www.mitoaction.org/ Donations can also be made to the organization in Matthews name.
And finally, below is a tribute to Matthew. It was put together by one of Paul and Sarah’s friends.