"You better go for it."

Lessons of a life well lived

BY HENRY ABBOTT

Photo by Emily Abbott

Today, many of my father’s closest loved ones—including Georgie in the photo above—will not be not at my dad’s burial, in England. A lot of us are not there because of the coronavirus. Georgie—well, we’ll get to that.

Less than two weeks ago, on a Wednesday, we had two very special guests on BRING IT IN: Erie BayHawks coach Ryan Pannone and … my sister Emily. Emily joined us live from quarantine in England, bringing a rare ray of good news during this pandemic: She had recovered from the coronavirus! Eureka!

Before her appearance, my sister and I had a quick pregame discussion. Would we mention our dad? It was iffy—for one thing we both might cry. He had pneumonia and was being isolated at Southampton Hospital until they got test results. Although he was a portrait of fitness most of his life—doctor, mountain climber, marathoner, never-smoker, eater of vegetables—he had in recent years seemed unlikely to shrug off coronavirus. We were super worried.

In…