Heavy Hearts

Certain things should be off limits for 13-year-old girls and boys.

Thirteen should be reserved for sleepovers where you stay up all night wrestling and playing videogames with your friends. Teaching each other curse words that you heard you Uncle John say when he stubbed his toe and spilled his Bloody Mary on the carpet in the living room. Your parents pick you up in the morning, ruffled hair and red eyes, knowing that you’ll fall asleep shortly after Sunday night’s meatloaf.

Thirteen is about betting your best friend that he can’t finish a cherry Slurpee in one pull without getting brain freeze. Racing your siblings up the driveway to call “dibs” on the remote control for the afternoon. You frequently tell your parents that you don’t want to do your chores but for some reason if they tell you they’ll time you it’s incentive enough to get the job done.

Thirteen is slamming the minivan door shut and sprinting to the soccer field, shin guards already on and shoes untied. It’s trying to nutmeg your friends for bragging rights and teasing them for holding hands at the movie theatre.

Thirteen should have a caveat in Webster’s Dictionary and the AP Style Guide that the forbids the terms “heavy hearts”, “deeply saddened” and “heart failure” to be utilized.

Thirteen is a lightness of being.

Tuesday morning the hard wood floors were chilly to the touch. The crisp spring air crept in through an open window and the sun began to kiss the Pacific Ocean like a doting parent.

Doug and Nikki Mark went to wake up their 13-year-old son, Tommy. He’d be late to school, had soccer practice in the afternoon, friends to meet, goals to chase, fruit snacks to trade, chances to take, love to make and a life to live.

Thirteen is a lightness of being. What comes next is heavy.

Sometime through the night, Tommy Mark’s heart stopped beating.

Thirteen shouldn’t be spent in the arms of your loving parents wishing they had just one more moment with you. It shouldn’t be about coroners, cold meals brought to your home by loving friends and figuring out funeral plans.

But, here we are.

So, on Saturday, in a moment that will largely be inconsequential to some fans at StubHub Center, take a moment and clap a bit harder for LA Galaxy Academy product Tommy Mark.

You never know, but that warm embrace could help make the Mark family hearts just a little less heavy.

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