I am proud to say that I am father to a smart, talented, beautiful 29-year-old daughter who is an award winning broadcast journalist and I can’t imagine my life without her. But no matter how hard I may try, I can’t imagine how Gordon Burke – 29-year-old Sarah’s dad – feels this Saturday morning as the reality of her death sinks in.
The outpouring of public grief is understandable and predictable. But the reality is, most of us knew little or nothing about Sarah Burke until we heard news of the training crash that led to her death. It wasn’t until after her brain was severely damaged and she’d suffered a heart attack that her name became a household word; not until she was in a medically induced coma that we started to appreciate her considerable accomplishments as an elite athlete; it wasn’t until hope of recovery quickly give way to little hope of survival that we learned about the role she played in promoting her sport. It will make its Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Games.
No doubt there will be plenty of storylines involving Burke’s commitment and passion to the half pipe event when the world gathers for the Socchi Games. Much has already been written and said about the status she enjoyed as an early favourite to win a gold medal. While it may earn Burke a posthumous place in a Hall of Fame or two, her real legacy will be the lives lived thanks to the decision to donate her organs.
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Media, friends, competitors and fans will recount and share those stories over the coming days as the Burke family deals with funeral and memorial arrangements. All of which will be a point of lifetime pride for Burke’s family.
And once the last of the mourners depart, once the reporters and cameras hurry off to meet their deadlines, the time will come for the Burke family to face the quiet. That’s when Sarah’s husband Rory, her sister Anna and her parents Jan and Gordon will do their real mourning, when they will come to terms with the loss in their lives. They will do so together and they will do so individually. I wouldn’t presume or pretend to know the nature of Sarah’s relationship with her family but by all accounts it was loving and supportive.
As a dad, I can only imagine the moment when Gordon Burke will find himself alone with his thoughts. It may be a beautiful Saturday morning in January with a startling clear blue sky and a winter sun casting long sharp shadows across a blinding snowscape – the likes of which I enjoy this morning. The likes of which he might have spent watching, coaching, mentoring, and supporting Sarah as she tested the limits of her body, her skills and her imagination as a young athlete; knowing full well that the only way for her to grow was to allow her to fall and pick herself up.
I may not be able to imagine the depth of his loss in those moments. I can imagine the comfort he might find in knowing that a huge part of his life is defined as being “Sarah’s Dad”.
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