Ely Dehart died in 2020 after losing control of his vehicle on a gravel road. He was only 14 years old. He played basketball, football and baseball. When he was alive, he was a hugger, always spreading his joy with others. After his death, his parents donated many of his organs to other needy people who were waiting for such organs.
Nathan and Jennifer Dehart, the parents of Ely, desperately miss their son. His former teammates also desperately miss their friend. So, after the players are introduced at the basketball games, each player makes a bee-line to Mrs. Dehart to embrace her with a hug. They do this before every game. “That truly means a lot to me,” Jennifer said with tears in her eyes. “It’s like my child is hugging me through them every time they hug me.”
Joe’s Perspective: As a father of 4 daughters, I don’t ever want to know how it feels to lose a child. It is my biggest fear in this world. The sorrow and the loss must be completely overwhelming. However, in the middle of all this pain and sadness, these boys delivered love and support in the darkest hour for these parents. It would have been so easy for these parents to keep to themselves and never go to another game. It would have been so easy for these high school boys to go about their business. However, both are so much better off due to these moments of bonding. These moments of kindness are leading to something called healing.
Your Turn: What lessons do we learn from this story that we can apply to our lives?
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Everything that we do in life makes an impact on those around us.
I found this very moving. I learned from this lesson to always give back. The little things matter and even doing the smallest acts of kindness goes a long way. You never know what someone is going through and you might impact their life through little things like what the players did. They can’t replace the boy who died, but something like that makes the situation just a little bit better.
This lesson is too spread kindness no matter what because one little thing can go farther then some big things, like the big their teammate mom because with was bring her joy because that is what their son loved too was spread the kindness so I would say that it would tell you to speed kindness because you never know what it someone last day.
this post really got to me. i feel i learned a lot about what simple kindness really does for a person. i’ve always lived by “treat others how you wish to be treated” and sometimes that doesn’t work. this restored my faith in a lot of things.
Everything that we do on the court effects everyone on that court no matter what is going on
Everything that we do on the court effects everyone on that court no matter what is going on and to show kindness no what is out there
Always be there for someone and be kind because this is inspiring since he has been through a lot he still gives kindness to others
This story teaches you that the small gestures or acts of kindness can leave a huge impact on individuals. Take the time out of your day to be kind to everyone
A lesson from this story that we could apply to our lives is that little things like giving someone a hug if they are having a bad day can make a huge difference in people lives even if it is “just a hug” to them it is much more.
Just doing the smallest acts of kindness can make someone’s day so much better or even yourself it’s humbling
We all go through hardships and it’s okay to ask for help or not be okay. This team and mother are there for each other and support each other. Small acts of kindness mean a lot.
We all go through hardships and it’s okay to ask for help or not be okay. This team and mother are there for each other and support each other. Small acts of kindness mean a lot.
Going out of your way to make other people feel better, especially when they are struggling, helps both the person struggling and it helps yourself because it makes you feel better helping people. It also can create stronger relationships between people because you were there when they were going through something.
The lesson is no matter what be kind and spread kindness, it will make things easier and make peoples day including yours better.
The lesson is no matter what be kind and spread kindness, it will make things easier and make peoples day including yours better.
The story is an example for how you can spread kindness even through hard times.
This story affected me by you can still give you love and kinds to other even when you or them are at y’all’s plates.
that it will bring you down if you loose someone you love but people can help you remember and they honor that person to bring you back up.
We learned that you should treasure people while they’re still there.
its nice to see that there is people that treat people like there friends mother like there own mom especially when that mom has lost her son.
I think we can learn that showing appreciation for the people around us is important because Ely did this by giving every one hugs and even after his death the joy he spread through his hugs continues on through the basketball team.
I think this very sentimental to the mother who lost her child and the boys hugging heer is wholesome and its just proof bad things happen to good people and its not hard to respect.
its always nice to give back to someone even if they didn’t mean much to you
I learned a lesson about sometimes you just need to be nice and you need to be caring for someone to feel better and it just helps when people care about you to make you feel better.
Always be grateful for what you have.
The lesson that you learn from this is that, when someone in your family dies the people that they positively effect will try to help you through the pain.
We can learn that even if someone you love passes away there are always other people there for you as long as you are there for them as well.
Some lessons that we learned from this story that we can apply to our lives are that even though somebody passed away they are always still with us.
The lesson that we learn from this story is that we can and should do our best since others will most likely look up to you when you try your best.
we can learn that even after the death of a family member we can still have help and support from people around us.
we can learn that even after the death of a family member we can still have help and support from people around us.
The lessons that we learn from this story that we can apply to our lives is that if we lose a family member they are not really gone they are still here. Watching over all of us showing the right path we should walk on. No one is gone forever.
The lesson that we learn form this story is that know matter what happened to the person that died he/ she is still with you and they will never leave you.
it just shows how much these kids and the mother cared for him. the kids giving the mom hugs is showing her empathy and appreciation.
The lessons that we learn from this story that we can apply to our lives is that no one is gone forever. Lose a family member they are still there guiding you to the right path.
That when something happens to someone you know or to their families you support them and help them through it anyway that you can.
The lesson that I learned was even though dark times there still is good. And that there is still good in the world and people. We can apply this in our lives by showing people that we care about them and what has happened to them.
always support others when their down.