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#Post#: 551--------------------------------------------------
Memoir
By: vanesse3 Date: March 31, 2014, 7:13 am
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That day we arrived at the unfamiliar church to celebrate and
mourn the life of a loved one that day. The tall ceilings were
echoed the loud voices of the people that filled the large room.
The voices were not joyous, but they resonated of remembrance.
As I looked around the room I saw stranger, but I also saw my
closet friends and family. I saw these friends that had turned
into family over the years. I had never seen so many people in
one place to honor just one person. While this occasion was a
somber gathering you still hear the faint laughter and see the
smiles, as stories were exchanged. I was at the age where I
knew exactly what was going on, but awkwardly handled the
situation. My mind filled with conflicting thoughts; What do I
say? Is it OK to smile? Will someone laugh at me if I start
crying? I looked over to my dad where I could see the pain in
his face and he tried to hold back his own tears. I had only
once seen my dad like this before when my grandmother passed
away. This seemed like so long ago and the memories were faint
with me being only 6 years old at the time. In my eyes my Dad
is one of the strongest people I know. He is tough and he
always knows the right thing to say. He has been a football
coach for longer than I have been alive.
I was at the funeral of Coach VerDuin. To me he was never “Mr.
VerDuin” or “Jack”, he had always been “Coach” VerDuin. While
he had never actually personally been my coach that is what he
was in my eyes. As we waited in line to give our respects to
his family we were able to look at array of family photos that
had been collected over the years. When we finally reached Mrs.
VerDuin, my Dad broke down. He began to cry and so did she,
neither of these two very strong people could hold their tears
in any longer. To my Dad Coach VerDuin was the father figure he
had never had. He had grown up learning from him. Even as an
adult my Dad was learning from him. He was a role model to my
entire family, including my two brothers. For my older brother,
he was a mentor and a coach. My older brother’s success on and
off the football field should be recognized partially to the
encouragement of Coach VerDuin. To my siblings and I we looked
to Coach VerDuin not only as a mentor, but a grandfather figure.
The only grandfather we knew passed away while we were all
young, and Coach VerDuin was willing to spread his love to our
family. His granddaughter and grandson have been close friends
of my brother and I since we were all young, and they were very
willing to share their grandfather. As I saw my friend I could
see how upset she was, I gave her a hug and mustered up the most
appropriate words of support that I could give.
As we finally reached our seats we waited with heavy hearts for
the funeral to begin. As the priest came to the stage to say
some words the crowd was filled with sniffles and sighs. Coach
VerDuin’s daughter, whom is also a very close family friend,
came to say some words about her father…. Her words were
powerful, yet I cannot remember the exact things that were said.
They made the large crowd both burst with laughter and sob with
tears. It was hard to put all the accomplishments and
attributes of Coach VerDuin’s life in a short ceremony. His
daughter knew how much her father loved the game of football and
how it was his life. She mentioned the long hours he put into
his career and how sometimes football was the reason for him
missing her activities. This is something the selfish side of
me thinks of at times also. My Dad always does his best to put
our family in front of his football, but at times things are
missed. At times I made him feel guilty for being late to a
basketball game of mine for having to drop a player off at home
from practice because they had no ride. The moment I put this
selfishness behind me was the day my Dad shared a letter a
former player had written to him. It showed me how important it
was for me to share my Dad. There were others out there like
this boy, who grew up with not much and no father figure. I
needed to learn from Coach VerDuin’s daughter how to share my
dad, like she did with so many others. I had finally realized
the way my own Dad has impacted so many, while I always thought
of Coach VerDuin like this I had my own role model right in
front of me.
After the funeral, the crowd flooded into another room of the
ignoramus church to end with a brunch. The large room’s walls
were lined with tables of food. In the center sat a large
amount of circular tables. As we finally had made our way into
this room more than half of the tables had been full already.
The enormity of his impact of other’s hit me again as I looked
around the room I found this so inspiring. All of these people
had been a part of his life and he had been a part of theirs.
Coach VerDuin was always one to make any normal day event into a
learning lesson. This moment I could tell how much of an impact
he had on my Dad’s life. It amazed me how one man could make
such a powerful impact on my only my Dad, but so many others. I
could tell by not only the abundance of people in attendance at
his funeral, but by the way they all talked about him. He truly
cared about others and making them see their full potential.
I have experience first-hand the way that Coach VerDuin could
make you feel special and teach you an important life lesson.
He had that special touch of being able to talk to anyone and
reflect on his or her strengths and weaknesses. This is one
reason he was such a well-respected football coach. While
sometimes Coach VerDuin may not have always been liked by
others, he was always respected by them. In my eyes, this is an
important quality. Throughout life not everyone is going to
like to or agree with everything you have to say, but the
important part is if that person has respect for you. The
respect is not just automatically given it must be earned in
someway. This is something Coach VerDuin always emphasized
both, and now my Dad reminds me of. Coach VerDuin believed in
creating well-rounded athlete and human being. He always used
the phrase “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. While some
would think this he meant this phrase to only apply in the
athletic stance where if you your out of shape, but can throw
the ball it will not help you much for example. He also
encouraged it in a different aspect. Although his first love
was football, he encouraged his players to try out for other
sports, or after-school activities. He also stressed the
importance of being a student-athlete and the student aspect
always comes first. He saw the importance of all of these
things that would create a well-rounded individual.
One very vivid memory I have of Coach VerDuin is afterschool
waiting for my brother. I was standing on the ledge of the
indoor track as the sound of basketball bouncing off the smooth
floor filled the air. I had just gotten out of practice and my
skin was still sticky from sweat as I watched the varsity
basketball team begin practice. I was only a freshman
Conclusion:
As I reflect on all the ways that I have been impacted by such
a great man, it hurts to think that he could still be here
making a difference on more people. Sometimes people are just
taken too early, even though we were all lucky enough to have
him in our lives for as long as we did. I wish I was able to
thank him for all the ways he had inspire me to be the best
person I can be. I want to be able to touch as many lives like
he did. Sometimes I think of the future, such as my time when I
am finally a teacher when I think of changing lives, but then I
remember his words of getting it done right now. I need to
constantly remind me of this. I do not have to wait until I
graduate or get a teaching job to do this, I can start right now
#Post#: 616--------------------------------------------------
Re: Memoir (reply to vanesse3)
By: Carly21 Date: April 7, 2014, 12:42 pm
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- I really enjoyed your memoir. I definitely related to your
story of losing someone important to you because that is what I
wrote my memoir about.
- I liked how you talked a lot about Coach VerDuin's life and
how he related to yours. It makes the story much more meaningful
- I think your story would really benefit if you added a little
more detail. Also, I think it would be good if you added more
detail and substance to your favorite memory of Coach VerDuin
that you mentioned at the bottom.
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