COVID, Cancer, and Calling

On Saturday, February 22, 2020, I witnessed one of the greatest basketball games in my life. Cannon School battled Charlotte Latin for the North Carolina 4A Independent Schools state championship. This game featured some outstanding players who have an excellent future in Division 1 college basketball, maybe even the NBA. More importantly for me, this game featured my godson Deuce, a Bahamas native who has been staying with us for three years while attending Cannon. Though he did not get a lot of playing time that game, my family and I were proud of the tremendous growth and development he realized throughout his investment in the program. For this reason, my entire family—Renee (my wife), Rylee and Rowan (our kids), and MeeMaw(my mother-in-law)—made it a priority that day to attend and support Cannon in this historic quest. What an intense and electric atmosphere. The twenty-five-hundred-seat gymnasium was visibly at over-capacity, with enthusiastic students from both schools cheering on their respective teams, passionate parents and family members supporting their child, college scouts looking for their school’s next basketball star, and basketball junkies fending for a great game. Whatever reason for attendance, this game delivered. Both teams fought hard, with each side making timely plays to keep their team in the game. In the end, Cannon School pulled off the win, 71–69, on a game-saving block of a three-pointer. Looking back, this game was a significant event for my family. For one, we were we able to support Deuce as he won the state championship. Even more significantly, this was the last family event we attended with a capacity crowd. This was the last event the family attended without wearing a mask, without socially distancing, and without frequently applying hand sanitizer. You see, as this game was taking place, COVID-19 was steadily spreading throughout the United States, and little did we know that in just a few weeks, our lives would change drastically.