The paper is fragile, the ink faded by time, but the words Lou Gehrig wrote 70 years ago, after being diagnosed with ALS, reveal a man with inner strength and a clear sense of purpose in his determination to find a cure for the disease.
His words are now enclosed in protective plastic sleeves in a blue binder to be preserved for as long as possible. But that doesn't make their impact any less emotional.
Nearly every time collector James Ancel opens the binder and reads the correspondence between Gehrig and his doctor, the reaction is the same: tears.
"It's very hard to get through," Ancel said. "It's hard reading. These are the last words, the last thoughts of an icon. And with each letter, you knew he's getting closer and closer to the end."
Gehrig was a proud, private man. From his final game with the New York Yankees on April 30, 1939, until he died on June 2, 1941, little was known about the everyday battles the "Iron Horse" faced with the disease that eventually took his life -- and, later, his name.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Gehrig's famed "Luckiest Man" speech, Ancel, a sports memorabilia collector, and The Rip Van Winkle Foundation, which oversees the Gehrig estate, have agreed to let ESPN make selected letters public for the first time. The correspondence between Gehrig and Dr. Paul O'Leary provides a rare and exclusive look the documentation of Gehrig's decline.
I couldn't even read the first letter.
0 comments:
Post a Comment