I am still reeling...

It is Sunday evening now, as I ponder through a twenty year friendship, trying to appraise the incredible value of someone I'll never see again.  Difficult...
 
At 2:00 am this morning (Sunday morning) my cell phone's buzzing away woke me from a rather peaceful sleep.  After several minutes of ignoring it, I finally answered to see who could be so brazen at 2:00 am.  It was my OEC alum Mike Vail.  Mike is the Atlanta (Georgia) PAL Boxing team coach and an Atlanta Police Department police officer. 
 
"This better be good," I threatened...

"Vernon's dead."

His words have tortured me all day.

At this point, it's difficult to see any sun shining in the immediate future.
 
Apparently he was shot in the back by a coward who was too threatened or too scared to make a fist around anything but a gun.  Vernon was shot in the back multiple times, the way cowards do.

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Vernon Forrest was a hero to so many people in so many ways. 

He was definitely one of our sport's "good guys" and to say I'll miss him can't be  more understated.
 
Who can forget Vernon's team of mentally disadvantaged youngsters (who were members of Destiny's Hope, a project he launched in Atlanta to provide homes for the mentally disabled) escorting him to the ring and cheering for him from their front row seats?  Those kids knew nothing about boxing or titles or promoters.  They never witnessed a packed stadium of fight fans screaming at the top of their lungs for somebody. In fact, the full summit of competing for them is most likely encased in their personal struggles of simply getting out of bed.  Yet, through Vernon's attention there is a remarkable chance that these kids were shown the priceless reward of what it is to be a champion.

Three years ago Vernon had a truck load of brand new bicycles delivered to the Atlanta PAL Boxing Team.  All of these particular boxers reside in the Bowen Homes Housing Projects in inner-city Atlanta where drugs, shootings, rapes and neglect run rampant.  Upon delivery, Vernon personally handed each boxer a new bicycle.  Vernon Forrest was more than a champ to them.
 
I'm a fighter by nature, yet, am honored to say that I cannot stop crying about this loss. 

I will always aspire to become a champ like Vernon Forrest, anything less would leave me unfulfilled.

~Ricky Ray Taylor~