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can't believe it has been 10 years since Heather died. My wife grew up with her and probably one of the reasons we got married and now have two beautiful girls. Jason has had his ups and downs like a roller coaster. Definitely one of the toughest days of my life. Sitting at SEMC for hours. Well over a hundred people outside wanting to know how she was, but I couldn't tell them she was not alive and the doctors kept fighting. Friends had arrived from all over, Tampa, Jacksonville, Birmingham came to Dothan. The toughest part was seeing her twin sister come in. Jason's dad holding me in a bear hug. The doctor taking Jason in to hold his child.
When I told Wayne at a tailgate that I found an old post and would email it, but never did. For some reason today I went home to look for the file and realized today is the 10th anniversary. For weeks afterwards it was rough obviously. Jason would come hang out everynight. He pretty much lived at my house for a while. That basketball team in '99 was the thing that kept us sane. Cliff's brother in law was dying of cancer at the time, so Jason and I would record the games off satellite on VHS and drop them off with John after the game was over so he could watch. We were watching the Georgia game and Porter had a massive slam and it was the first time I had seen Jason crack a smile in a long time. I remember the last game of the season vs Ohio St. in the tournament I was going to bed because I said that I was going to wake up in the morning and Auburn would have lost and John would be gone once the game ended. It was a strange piece of mind, like John was saying it was okay. the next day I got a call saying that John had died a few hours after the game. I didn't want to tell Jason, but he knew what the call was.
We had a great trip in Feburary out to see the game in Starkville, staying at Waverly Waters. We recorded a lot of that trip and laugh at the DVD of it now. I remember that trip to Auburn for the Florida game sitting with James Worthy in the bar in Auburn in the middle of the day. Worthy said if Florida would give Donovan time, he would win a national championship. What does Worthy know about basketball? Jason asked Worthy to autograph Heather's tummy and I said he can't do that. So he asked if Worthy would rub it to get some good hoops genes. We had no clue by Wednesday, they would both be gone.
