It didn’t erase any hurt. It did not stop the grief. But it was a little comforting.
Two moments Wednesday, courtesy of Andre Williams and Eddie Sutton, also helped to dull pain’s jagged knife.
Both men spoke at the memorial service for the 10 Cowboys lost in Saturday’s place crash.
Williams, an OSU forward whose life has been no stranger to tragedy, touched the hearts of the 14,000 people in Gallagher-Iba Arena when he spoke.
Sutton made everyone laugh, which is something that has been done very rarely in the last four days.
Representing the players at the request of Sutton, Williams first apologized to the families of the crash victims for having to meet under the circumstances everyone was facing. Then, he thanked the OSU community for its support.
Following that, he read a poem he first heard at a funeral of a friend a few weeks ago entitled “I am Free.”
The poem itself is as comforting to people as anything on this page could be, but what Williams did that was most important was stand on his feet, walk to the podium and talk to the crowd.
It took strength just to do that. Williams looked right at the crowd. He never hung down his head, although nobody would have blamed him if he did. He faced the faces in the arena and talked.
Williams rose above his own pain to comfort others.
That alone meant as much to the Cowboy family as anything that has happened since Saturday.Then, Sutton did the same, aided by a standing ovation that Jason Keep, a player who was in his coach’s doghouse back when sports meant something, helped start. Keep and Fredrik Jönzén were the first to their feet when Sutton was introduced.
Then Sutton made the crowd laugh. He made the crowd laugh when he was talking about Daniel Lawson, one of the 10 who died in the crash.
Lawson was a reserve guard whose late-game hustle helped the Cowboys upset Iowa State in early January, back when sports meant something.
Sutton talked about Lawson the person. And, in doing so, he brought laughter to Gallagher-Iba Arena for the first time in what seemed like years.
“I’ve never seen a player that has so drawn his teammates around him,” Sutton said with a big grin. “He was like a magnet!
“Well, I found out today why. It was because he had so many lady friends.”
That was funny.
It made us all laugh for a change. Players laughed. Families laughed. Students laughed.
You can’t do that enough this week.
In two very different ways, Andre Williams and Eddie Sutton helped ease a lot of pain Wednesday.
We’ll take all of that we can get.
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