So some months back, I wrote a post about carpe diem—seizing the day. But sometimes, the point is driven home and the lesson is far more poignant than other times.
On Monday, my mother called to let me know that her cousin’s 16-year old son, Quinn Issiah Evering, had suddenly passed away on a trip down to Colorado for basketball camp. 16 years old.
You never know what this world has in store for you. So live your lives and live them well. Live every day like it’s your last, and live with no regrets. For the biggest one will always be “I wish I did this/that…”.
I’ll let the Toronto Star article speak for itself below, but I hope they’re taking care of Quinn up above. He was loved by many.
Quinn Issiah Evering was a monster on the basketball court but a gentle giant with his family and many friends.“Everybody loved him that met him,” said his aunt, Lorraine Evering. “He was a gentle, sweet, loving young man.”Quinn, 16, collapsed during a passing drill at a basketball camp in Colorado around 3 p.m. Monday. His coaches and paramedics performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the Aspen Valley Hospital, according to Pitkin County police.He was a big boy with a big smile, said Steve Ketchum, head coach at the senior boys’ elite camp run by the Aspen Basketball Academy.
Quinn was 6’5” and about to enter grade 11 at Northern Secondary School in the Eglinton Ave. E. and Mount Pleasant Ave. area.
“He had some talent and appeared to be playing and competing with the best of them,” said Ketchum. “My heart goes out to him and his family.”
There were about 130 boys at the overnight camp, including a childhood friend of Quinn’s. The Aspen School District brought school counsellors in for the other campers Monday evening and those counsellors will be available for the rest of the week, said superintendent John Maloy. The camp will continue as scheduled, until Thursday afternoon.
“They’re doing as good as they could possibly do given that it’s such a tragic circumstance,” said Ketchum of the other children who were on the court when Quinn collapsed.
The cause of death was still unknown Tuesday and the Pitkin County Coroners Office announced it would be performing an autopsy.
Quinn was an only child and his mother Molly’s best friend. She was too distraught to speak with the media while she waited in Toronto for her son’s body to be flown back from Colorado.
“He was a good kid and loved his mom,” said his aunt. “When he exhaled, she inhaled.”
Quinn played basketball, football and the saxophone, she added, and enjoyed building model bicycles.
Calling the Great White North his home, Casey Palmer the Canadian Dad spend his free time in pursuit of the greatest content possible.
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