Blog 3227 – 09.02.2024

See You Later, Coach

I met Phyllis Green Donley in Junior High School sixty-two years ago. We have been friends ever since. My friend’s husband of fifty-one years, Richard Thomas Donley passed recently and she is lost without him. How do you comfort someone experiencing such a loss? The thing that I think helps most of all is to talk about the dearly departed.

In one of my favorite movies Australia the Aboriginal People of that great country are said to observe the custom of never mentioning the deceased name again after they die. To me that only compounds and exacerbates the sense of loss. Nothing and no one is ever truly lost, but always ours to cherish and to enjoy if we choose.

Richard Donley was beloved by his wife, his daughter Tracy, his granddaughter Sophia, the many students he taught and coached throughout his long career in education, and long line of friends that he made along the way. Even his wife called him Coach. I met Coach on several occasions and he was a great guy. My son Jonathan only met him once at a Junior High School ninth grade class 40th reunion that my family and I attended in Chattanooga in 2005.

I remember at the time that Jonathan (Jay) was quite impressed with Coach. That might have been what lead him to play football for his high school alma mater for three seasons beginning soon after his encounter with Richard. Coach took an interest in all his students, his family, and his friends. He made a real difference in countless lives. And that is someone that none of us who knew him ever want to forget nor the name of one who so wonderfully personified empathy, caring, and love toward his fellow man.

See you later, Coach!

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White