Not sure how I missed this before, but one of my favorite writers, Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski, put together an incredible heartwrenching article in the Jan. 24 issue of that magazine about the Green family:
Christina had gone with neighbors to meet Giffords because she thought she might like to get into politics. That’s how the Greens do things. They follow their hearts. When John was a low-level Orioles scout he was invited to a team party, where he saw club president Larry Lucchino standing alone. The other scouts kept their distance. John walked up to the boss and said, “Pretty nice spread, eh, Larry?”
Everyone says Christina had Roxanna’s grace and John’s spirit. Of course she played baseball, the only girl on her Little League team. Of course she was elected to her student council. Outside Mesa Verde Elementary her schoolmates would put up a memorial for Christina with teddy bears and ballet slippers and posters. One friend, Paige Carlin, simply wrote down words that described Christina. BASEBALL. READING. PRETTY. ANIMALS. POLITICIAN. MATH. FUNNY. The biggest word on the page was HAPPY.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.
as the father of two little girls I stayed away from news stories about little Christina until I thought my heart could take it. My timing was still off because these stories broke my my heart anyway. Thank you Dan for posting this because at least this story allowed me to smile through the tears. Thank you Joe for your work on the story and to the Green family I can’t begin to understand your loss but still you have my deepest sympathies.