{"id":7390,"date":"2022-06-30T08:51:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksangelsfoundation.com\/?p=7390"},"modified":"2022-06-30T08:51:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:51:34","slug":"paul-daugherty-hero-is-an-overused-term-but-not-in-the-case-of-lauren-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksangelsfoundation.com\/?p=7390","title":{"rendered":"Paul Daugherty: Hero is an overused term, but not in the case of Lauren Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Paul Daugherty<\/u><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
original article:<\/div>\n
Cincinnati Enquirer<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
View Comments<\/u><\/b><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\u201cHero\u2019\u2019 is an overripe\u00a0word in sports. Loose use has trampled its meaning, its precision, its special-ness. \u201cThe hero of the game\u2019\u2019 is an oxymoron. Lauren Hill was not a basketball-playing hero. She was a hero who happened to play basketball. The difference is enduring and profound.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
***************<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cAn angel taking flight is never cause for weeping.\u2019\u2019<\/i>\u00a0I wrote that more than seven years ago, at the memorial service for a young woman who died when she was just 19 years old. I\u2019d say Lauren Hill died too early, but I don\u2019t know what that means.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
What does \u201cdying early\u2019\u2019 mean when the person who died inspired such life, and continues to do so? Lauren \u201cleft\u2019\u2019 here, in the physical sense. But if you believe in souls and eternity and the power of doing good, you must also believe Lauren Hill remains very much in our midst.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
She\u2019s there in her mother\u2019s eyes, whenever Lisa Hill talks about the mission her daughter inspired. Lauren died of something horrible, diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a type of incurable brain tumor that preys on children. She lived barely 17 months\u00a0after doctors delivered the diagnosis. But oh, those months.<\/span><\/div>\n
Lauren is there in the minds of all who hope, especially the parents of children who\u2019ve just received the DIPG diagnosis. Those parents can be an example, too, a force of grace and possibility. They can experience all that was written and said about Lauren and the genuine emotion she inspired. They can\u00a0talk to Lauren\u2019s mother about Lauren. Lisa is available, she\u2019s around. She\u2019ll talk to you, even as it can make her unbearably sad. She has been where these families are going. \u201cThey have no fighting chance,\u2019\u2019 she said. And yet, Lauren\u2019s story must be shared. No one turned death into life the way Lauren did. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\u201cI knew there was an hourglass glued to the table,\u2019\u2019 Lisa Hill said last week. \u201cI didn\u2019t know when the sand would run out.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Seven years later, she is as I remembered her. Straightforward, candid, strong. A woman capable of holding together her family, even as her marriage ended and the house in which Lauren grew up was put up for sale.<\/span><\/div>\n
Lisa has long-haul COVID-19. She needs oxygen at night. She held back grieving at first, filling her thoughts and days with the business of launching Lauren\u2019s charity, Lauren\u2019s Fight For Cure, and helping to publicize the national organization, The Cure Starts Now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Eventually grief won, as grief must if we are to heal. Lisa meets her days now with a sadness that endures, but also with a healthy respect for life\u2019s gifts. \u201c(I) look at life differently from everybody else. People worry about trivial stuff. I used to. Not anymore.\u2019\u2019 People\u2019s lives \u201care a blessing,\u2019\u2019 said Lisa, \u201cand they don\u2019t even realize it.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n
The notion of heroism came up. I told her I didn\u2019t believe in sports heroes. I\u2019ve never worshipped at that altar and very likely hadn\u2019t applied the word to an athlete in 20 years. I asked Lisa what she thought. I asked her if Lauren were a hero. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cA hero for me is somebody who goes above and beyond with some sort of sacrifice, to save others,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cYou know what I mean? If you\u2019re playing football, you\u2019re playing football. You might be sacrificing your body for entertainment purposes, but is that heroic?\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n
Lauren gave grace to the business of dying. She revived our collective compassion and elevated our communal goodwill. She made us consider our better natures. We thought about doing good.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
On nights when she was too sick to leave her bed, she\u2019d attend a fundraiser in her honor. On days when all she wanted was her home, her room, her dog and her family, she\u2019d do media instead, often away from the house. She felt blessed by the opportunity she felt she\u2019d been given.<\/span><\/div>\n
Heroism is taking the unbearable burden and making it light.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cHer end of life was spent in the public eye. She sacrificed her time with friends and family\u00a0to build awareness,\u2019\u2019 Lisa said. After the first story \u2013 a moving, eloquent TV feature done by former local sports and news anchor Brad Johansen \u2013 Lisa presented her daughter with two options.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYou can either go through the doorway and do that next interview,\u2019\u2019 Lisa told Lauren, \u201cor you can say no. Either way is OK.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n
Lauren said yes, because that is what heroes do. Her story crescendo-ed in November 2014 when as a basketball player for Mount St. Joseph University she scored her team’s first basket, against Hiram College. Her life was honored five months later, in a memorial service on the hardwood at Cintas Center, where she\u2019d scored that first, triumphal field goal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cLauren always said she wanted (DIPG) to have a face,\u2019\u2019 Lisa said. \u201cHere in Cincinnati, it does.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n
Heightened awareness has led to higher sophistication in the science and more money with which to explore new treatment possibilities and potential cures. Life expectancy after diagnosis has inched upward, from 10 to 17 months to almost three years. Hope is the everlasting gift. Lauren embodied that. Still does. We\u2019d expect nothing less from a hero.<\/span><\/div>\n
Lisa Hill shoulders on, equally diminished and enriched. Lauren\u2019s passing showed Lisa the love and kindness of which we are capable. \u201cHow compassionate Cincinnatians really are,\u2019\u2019 she said. But why did it take a child\u2019s death to make that known?<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cIt breaks my heart every time another kiddo is diagnosed. In the future, maybe some family will have that extreme hopefulness that we did not have,\u2019\u2019 Lisa said.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
April 13, 2015: \u00a0At her memorial service, Lauren\u2019s Mount St. Joe teammates passed her No. 22 jersey, hand to hand, until it rested atop her casket. I wrote this:<\/span><\/div>\n
It’s not hard to Be Like Lauren. Just live with gratitude and humility, think first of others and be courageous in every waking moment. That’s part of her legacy, too. A huge part. Lauren stayed just long enough to show us what we’re capable of.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cSeven years,\u2019\u2019 Lisa said. Long, sad, lovely, beautiful. Life. \u201cI think she\u2019d be proud.\u2019\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n
Amen and amen.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Paul Daugherty original article: Cincinnati Enquirer View Comments \u201cHero\u2019\u2019 is an overripe\u00a0word in sports. Loose use has trampled its meaning, its precision, its special-ness. \u201cThe hero of the game\u2019\u2019 is an oxymoron. Lauren Hill was not a basketball-playing hero. She was a hero who happened to play basketball. The difference\u2026<\/p>\n

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