Roy Exum
I'm still young enough to believe there is a good reason for everything that happens. I am also old enough to have seen proof time and time again that this belief is true. Duly stated, there is no way any human being, still on this planet Earth before going to heaven, can find the good when a vibrant life, filled with laughter and happiness, is snatched away at age 26 by something as inane as a “sneaker wave.”
Kelly Smith, the youngest of the five boys and younger sister that the good Lord blessed the lives of Crissie and Bill Moore Smith, is presumably drowned after a freak wave – one that not even the sharpest eyes on the ocean can predict – crashed with such force on the rocky Oregon coastline that it mercilessly swept the one-time Baylor School soccer hero out to sea.
A memorial service for the immensely-popular Kelly will be held today – Tuesday, April 19th – at 3:00 p.m. at the Village Green in the Long Branch Residential Preserve. The Long Branch property is located near the top of Nicksjack Road, which goes up Lookout Mountain from Chattanooga Valley. (Those attending coming from downtown should drive through St. Elmo and into Georgia on State Highway 193, watching for Nickajack on the right. Those on Lookout Mountain should follow Lula Lake Road, watch for Nickajack on the left.)
And what might we expect, as we gather with one of the most wonderful and fun families in all of America? Lookout Mountain Presbyterian pastor Joe Novenson, who has baptized the boys and the glowing Katie after she was adopted from Russia, sent me this email in answer to my personal anguish. I violate no confidentiality in sharing this, only the hope it will still your heart as it did mine.
Joe and longtime associate Frank Hitchings immediately went to be with the family and this is what he saw:
“I have just seen some of the most beautiful sorrow saturated with fighting hope, tears mingled with hard fought trust, screaming pain wrapped in embracing family love, sanctuary found in family and friends who embody and express the reality of Jesus’ commands to love Him and love each other.
“When I grow up,” Joe added, “I want to be like Bill and his beloved bride and children and their brides…beautiful while blasted by the fallen world, bleeding grief but trusting in the Son who bled for their son. I watched brothers and a sister agonize and laugh deeply in praise-filled thanks as they treasured and remembered and loved all that their brother is and has given them. I have been on holy ground…holy ground…holy ground. Glory…it is holy ground to be near them.”
It will evermore be holy ground this afternoon.
I simply cannot imagine losing a child – none of us can grasp that and, to the ones who have and still endure by faith, their courage and fortitude is nothing short of a miracle.
In the time I’ve lived, written many an obituary and grieved mightily for family and friends alike, I find solace when a young person dies with two questions: “Were they doing what they wanted to do, and were they able to eat heartily from the feast of Life as long as they lived?" With Kelly Smith the answers are easy.
His dad, Bill Moore Smith, is a beloved physician in Chattanooga and, for years, has been the team doctor for UTC athletics. His kids have accompanied him countless times to sports events, which soon inspired each to become an athlete themselves, and the Smith’s household den is usually a wreck with at least six or seven kinds of balls, bats, fly rods, golf clubs, sweat shirts – around 18 “best friends” -- and enough laughter and hijinks to resemble a fraternity party. And it goes on without ceasing!
Last week we learned the Oregon coastline was hot … almost 90 over the weekend … while the water is still cold. The spindrift – the top of gigantic waves – was incredible under such conditions and a good crowd was there Friday morning to watch.
The Smith boys have always been taught they are invincible, whether staring down a two-foot putt or smashing a kick at the goal as time expires. According to rescue personnel via the Oregon State Police, Kelly and a friend inched closer to the thunderous show than the spectator area would allow. That is when the wave hit with no warning.
“The (sneakers) come within seconds out of nowhere,” explained a rescue ranger. “They have deadly force because there is so much sand they carry … very heavy … not a regular wave at all -- hit like a ton of bricks … and, as they dissipate, the strong currents are almost like quicksand, weighing you down where escape is difficult, if not impossible.”
With some belief there was a riptide caused by the angry water, a spokesman at Depoe Bay Coast Guard depot said the most immediate problem this time of the year is water temperature. Without a wetsuit an average adult would have only the slightest chance of survival after 20 minutes and, as Coast Guard helicopters and patrol boats rushed to the scene, the rough seas and rocky shoreline only added to the tragedy.
Yesterday the Coast Guard continued to search for Kelly’s body, running grids in 46-foot rescue boats. The teams have searched since Friday at 10:46 a.m., when the initial call was made.
Yet today’s memorial service, led by Rev. Novenson and Rev. Hitching, will remember how Kelly Smith lived, rather than how he died, and the brilliant legacy he leaves to his family, his teammates and his many friends.
royexum@aol.com