A sad day

I heard some very sad news earlier this week. Last Sunday, a boy I used to teach in the UK, named Sam, collapsed and died during a soccer match in which he was playing. He was only 16. I received an email from a parent at the school to tell me the news, and I had to read it three or four times to take it in. Sam's father was watching his son play, as he always did, and another former pupil of mine was playing on the opposite team.

The term 'tragedy' is over-used in life, especially in sport, but I can't think of a better word to describe what happened here. Sam's family were the most friendly, caring and supportive people you could wish to meet, and his father was, and still is, someone for whom I have huge respect. He always came to support our school teams, whether his sons were playing or not, and he was always positive, never negative; "did you have fun?" was always his first question after each match.

I'm sure his boy was having fun last Sunday. He was such a committed, competitive and talented young man, and it is extraordinarily difficult to comprehend that he has gone. I would love to be back in England at this time so that I could pay my respects in person, and it's at times like this that I wonder what I'm actually doing in Canada, let alone the sub-Arctic. I've called this country 'home' for the last three and a bit years and I enjoy living and working here, but such tragedies bring into focus the very notion of 'home'. Where is it, precisely? Is it where the heart is? Or wherever you lay your hat? Or even on the range? I've done more travelling in the last five years than in the rest of my life put together, and I think my vision of home has become increasingly blurred during that time...

That's quite enough navel-gazing for now though. I have nothing but fond memories of Sam, and it is intolerably unfair that he has been taken from his family so suddenly and so unexpectedly. On tonight's CSI: NY, Detective Mac Taylor commented that we should make the most of the time that we spend with the ones we care about, and that rings especially true today. Godspeed to you, Sam.