Sometimes Words Don't Work

This morning I got a call at 10:15AM from my wife telling me that Kevin Poole had been in an accident last night and had been transferred by air to an Atlanta hospital with head injuries. At 10:25AM I was in my car heading to that hospital. Before 12 Noon I was hugging a couple of heart-broken parents and a heart broken sister who happen to have been close friends of ours for a long time. At 1:30PM I was in the Intensive Care Unit watching the heart monitor when Kevin’s heart stopped beating.

Whatever I thought was so important to do today all of sudden didn’t matter. A young vibrant 26 year old life was suddenly over. One who had been such a big part of our lives for so many years had died way too soon. To say I was stunned would be a huge understatement.

Bobby and Peggy Poole are living their worst nightmare. The loss of a child has to be the worst thing a parent could ever face in life. I can tell you the Poole family had their hearts ripped out today and for them life will never be the same.

And this guy with all the words who gets paid to speak who has spent his life dealing with death had no words to share. I was completely speechless. All I could come up with was hugs. The truth is there were no words that needed to be said today. Sometimes words just don’t work.


We have three sons. David is 27, John is 26 and Luke is 21. Kevin was 6 days younger than our John and spent many nights at our house during their growing up years. I treated him like one of my own and I would not hesitate to get on to him along with my boys if he needed it. And that happened often with a bunch of boys. There were times when Kevin was best friends with John. Other times he was best friends with David. And he took up a lot of time with Luke and Luke always looked up to him. I helped coach Kevin in Little League and I knew early on that he was much better than most of the players on the field. That observation proved to be true later on when Kevin played college baseball (Photo of Kevin is from high school days).

I haven’t seen Kevin much in the last few years. People grow up and do their own thing. The last time I saw him to visit was at John’s wedding when he served as a groomsman. Tonight I wish I had one more opportunity to tell him how much I think of him. And more importantly how much God thinks of him. But I don’t.

My prayer tonight is that somehow God will give the Poole family the supernatural ability to see this tragedy from His perspective. If they look at this only from their human perspective I don’t know how they will make it through.

If you are a praying person, I would appreciate you saying a prayer for the Poole family tonight. I can tell you they need a miracle.

The Bruce Goddard family could use one as well.