former Crimson Tide football star Shannon Brown- a member of Alabama’s 1992 national championship team- is praying Loryn is having a happy birthday in Heaven.
He’s thinking of his daughter today.
She would be celebrating her 36th birthday.
He probably would be a grandfather if she had lived.
15 years after he lost her, former Crimson Tide football star Shannon Brown- a member of Alabama’s 1992 national championship team- is praying Loryn is having a happy birthday in Heaven.
It’s a busy day at Liberty Middle School in Madison, AL.
Those 11, 12 and 13 year old students will keep a principal on his toes.
There’s never much down time being a middle school principal.
That’s a good thing for Shannon Brown, for the down time is the most painful time.
It’s not often that Shannon Brown slows down, and when he does, his mind tends to drift.
It drifts back to the good times and the difficult times of becoming a father in high school and marrying young.
He thinks about when he and his then-wife Ashley welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world.
A little girl with wavy dark hair and freckles that lit up a room.
Little Loryn Brown would conquer the world.
It’s the down time that makes his mind wander.
It wanders back to when little Loryn would attend Bama football games to watch her father play.
Loryn, outfitted in her cute Bama dresses, yelling at the top of her lungs.
“That’s my daddy”, Loryn would yell.
Shannon Brown takes a moment out of his hectic day to think back.
He wonders where the time has gone.
Has it really been over three decades since he played football for Gene Stallings?
Thirty years since he was named the Bama team captain?
15 years since he lost Loryn?
It was a day that changed his life, and it was a day that will never leave him.
April 27th, 2011.
Shannon heard the tornado was bad, so he headed to Tuscaloosa, trying to convince himself that all was fine.
“Loryn will be OK”, he told himself, hundreds of times.
She was 21, living in a house with several roommates near Druid City Hospital.
She was about to take her final test to finish her semester at Shelton State.
She was then ready to enroll at the University Of Alabama.
Loryn would become a sportscaster.
Shannon Brown drove up to 51 Beverly Heights where he was met by a police officer.
It was a direct hit.
The officer told Shannon that three people in the house had died, and showed Shannon the pictures of all three.
His scream became a wail.
His beautiful daughter with the freckles, the wavy hair, the unlimited future, was gone.
Shannon was keeping busy today in his middle school office, and he wants us to know a few things.
He wants us to know that he could have done better as a young father and a husband.
Says Shannon, “Back then, it was all about Shannon Brown.”
He wants us to know that while he’s asked God, “Why not take me?” a million times, he is blessed to have had Loryn for 21 years.
He wants us to know that he’s learned that we all must love one another.
He wants us to know that it isn’t just him who suffered loss on April 27, 2011.
He wants us to know that no parent should have to go through the pain of losing a child.
Shannon Brown has had a hectic day at Liberty Middle School, helping and loving kids.
He will be one of the last to leave the school at the end of a long day.
And when things calm down tonight, Shannon Brown will thank Him for his blessings.
Thank Him for the support He has provided.
And thank Him for putting Loryn in his life for 21 years.
*Please wish a 36th birthday in Heaven to Loryn.
*Thanks to Shannon Brown for the pictures.
Alabama Football
