The spirit of Darrell & Eva Davis is just one of great stories to define our national game.
I received a call from a friend who informed me the wife of a mutual friend is gravely ill.
Eva Davis, whose husband Darrell has covered the Saskatchewan Roughriders for 25 years for the Regina Leader-Post, is battling cancer again and suffered a seizure a week ago.
Last November I wrote in this space about how the Football Reporters of Canada had flown in Eva, unbeknownst to Darrell, from Regina to Winnipeg to surprise him when he received an award of merit from the FRC. Darrell was moved to tears upon seeing his wife in that special moment of his journalism career. Eva radiated the room.
Eva battled breast cancer 15 years ago and beat it, but the disease came back in 2006 and Eva endured the awful treatments that many cancer patients admit is worse than the disease. Eva, a long-time runner who would jog several kilometres early every morning with the family's Chocolate Labrador, Hershey, before going to work, decided she would participate in a Breast Cancer walk last year in Calgary. It left her physically and mentally exhausted because she was weakened from her treatments, but she made it to the finish line.
Darrell and Eva and their two sons, Austin and Tanner, have a special attachment to the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Canadian Football League. While Darrell has earned a reputation as one of the toughest and fiercest reporters on the football beat, Eva has often attended the games with her sons because she and Darrell have three season tickets. Eva, Austin and Tanner rooted for the Roughriders, even when they played poorly and as Darrell chronicled their futile efforts for his newspaper.
Darrell has taken a compassionate leave of absence from the Leader-Post to be with Eva and might not return. He is 51 and had planned to retire in four years anyway.
I have known and admired Eva for a long time as a woman of substance and character, and I have watched the wonderful job she and Darrell have done raising the two boys.
I am stunned that the cancer has come back with no mercy for this woman. I told Darrell I might find it difficult to speak with her, but she called me a couple of days later to say hello.
"I'm having a very pleasant day," she said, sounding in good spirits. "We're learning as we go along."
Eva said she is trying to concentrate on positive thoughts.
"I have to, it's not easy, but I'm really determined," she said.
I asked her about the Roughriders, and she said she's lost touch with them since she became ill a week ago.
"Now that Darrell's off the beat, he can be a fan, which is the first time ever," she said with a laugh.
It's times like these that I am reminded that we follow sports as a game that is, in many ways, a release from life, something we can enjoy realizing there is always another day; that winning and losing is not life and death.
There is a bigger battle going on in the world with people who are fighting for their lives, stricken by arbitrary illnesses that impact and affect more than just them. There are the people who love and care for them as family and friends.
When I think of Eva and I am reminded there a lot more important things in life than football; that for one family in Regina, the fate of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and their ability to overcome adversity caused by injuries is not the most important thing on their minds.
For Darrell, Eva, Austin and Tanner, every day is a day to value life, to appreciate and savour the good times; to laugh in the midst of all the pain, heartache, sadness and suffering.
Please say a prayer for Eva and her family.