DON’T FORGET TO SAY I LOVE YOU

Don’t forget to say I love you. That is something events like the tragic crane collapse in Manhattan this week reminds us. Two young men, their lives rich with life, were killed: Donald Leo, a 30-year-old crane operator who was going to get married this June 21, and Ramadan Kurtaj, a 27-year-old émigré from Kosovo. The New York Times reports that in addition to fighting for his life in Kosovo, Kurtaj “worked long hours on water and sewer lines so that he could send money home to his parents.”

When I read these stories my body stills, tears wet my eyes, and my heart breaks for those close to the loss. I remember a poignant note sent by a former Yankee catcher to a Yankee manager the day 32-year-old Yankee captain Thurman Munson was buried. Munson was killed when a plane he was flying crashed in Canton, Ohio on August 2, 1979.

The first game the Yankees played after Munson’s death was in Yankee Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles catcher was Rick Dempsey, a former Yankee and back-up catcher for Munson. The Yankee manager was Billy Martin. Dempsey wrote a note to Martin. In it he told Martin that he, like so many, loved Thurman and he, like so many of us, didn’t always remember to tell people he loved that he loved them. And so, in this note, he told Martin that he loved him.

Life, with all its bumps and bruises, is a beautiful thing. Sometimes the bumps and bruises part can rent so much space in our heads that we forget to notice the beautiful things, the wonderous things, the people in our lives that we love and who love us. So next time you’re talking with someone you love, don’t forget to tell them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think there is any such thing as telling someone you love them too many times. Have you ever asked anyone to stop telling you?