This might be the hardest post I'll ever have to write about. Today I feel like I can finally share my feelings. First off, thank you to everyone for their prayers and thoughts, calls and emails. Thank you so much.
My last blog was about the rivalry game against KWC. I rode to the game with Lins, Ash, and Care. It started out just as a normal short lil ride to Owensboro KY (about 45 min away). We got to the game at the beginning of the 2nd half of the ladies game. USI won, the ladies played a good game and it just added to the excitement for the mens game to get started.
Now, I'd like to tell y'all what the game was like, but I honestly can't remember. I know it was back and forth and then there was 4:42 left on the clock when Dori collapsed. At the time no one knew what was going on, Lins and I are in the stands just watching. He started convulsing, I remember asking Lins if we should go get his insurance information from David's kit. I just had a feeling that he was going to be transported to the local hospital. And that is exactly what happened. I talked to David, who asked that Lins and I go to the hospital to be with Dori. And it wasn't a question, we were there. We got to the hospital and bless the heart of the woman checking people in. She put us in this small "consultation" room with tissues all over the place. We sat there for a minute, we called Jay. We went back to the regular waiting room and the woman told us we must go back into the "consultation" room, that is where they will come talk to us. So we did, but we couldn't stay there, so we went back out to the waiting room one last time. This time the woman had to be very stern with us and tell us we were not allowed in the regular waiting room we must stay in the consultation room. By this time I was really questioning what is going on. Never had I not been able to be in the ER with our athletes, never had someone not came to tell me what was going on, never had I felt like this before. It was sometime later that a Chaplin, David and Jay came into the room to tell us that Dori did not make it.
After that things were fuzzy for a while. As an Athletic Trainer, you never expect for anything like this to happen. You can never prepare for it.
Dori was more than just a basketball player to me, he was a friend. He was goofy. He gave the BEST hugs, along with Jamar.. Those two love to give me a sandwich hug. They are funny. Dori got his nickname over the summer, when he was swimming daily with Boog (whom we called Nemo). Jeron said "Why do I gotta be the female fish?" it was the only name Lins could remember besides Nemo. So that was why he had to be the female fish. Then in December when Jamel was born, Lins asked "How is your lil baby Dori" Jeron said "he is wonderful, but y'all aren't gonna call him my lil baby Dori" I always asked Dori to sit on the table with me and talk, one day he was like "why do you always ask me to sit and talk" and my reply was "cause your voice is so deep it vibrates the table and feels really wierd.." he just laughed and wouldn't sit and talk with me any more. He was a gentle giant. He was one of a kind. Him and I had a talk one day about the kind of woman he wanted to marry, just a lil small black girl. It was funny to hear him say that because he was such a big man. I really miss my lil Dori. Dori had this bark that could scare anyone, in the PAC it was scary, but not half as scary as when you walked to your car and this LOUD bark occurred. I'm not gonna lie, one day I screamed and looked around. Dori had got me. He is just standing beside this car, laughing cause he knows he got me. LOL.. Thank God for all the wonderful memories I have of Dori. It is going to be hard seeing the boys play again, but I know it will also help with the healing process. Life is so short. He loved basketball and he died playing the game he loved.
This was Dori's last facebook status:
TODAY IS GAME DAY SO IM FEELIN LIKE GOIN TO KWC AND COMIN BACK WIT A VICTORY LEAVIN IT ALL OUT THERE #5 IN THE NATION...YADIDDA LETS GET IT on Thursday
He really did leave it all on the floor. Love and miss you Dori!
He really did leave it all on the floor. Love and miss you Dori!
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