Before the world as we knew it came unmoored amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, we wrote in late February about a poignant vision to honor heroic Chief Joe Delaney with a monument where the man who couldn’t swim died trying to save three children from drowning.
Thirty-seven years after No. 37’s death and on the morning after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory, Marvin Dearman, the police diver who tried to save him, woke up with what he called a revelation:
It was time to properly memorialize Delaney at Chennault Park in Monroe, Louisiana, with an aim toward a dedication ceremony on June 29, the anniversary of his death.
What’s happened since then has been another sort of revelation — a heartening one worth sharing in this bizarre time when we all need reminders and reassurances of the best of human nature and community.
Within two days of The Star writing about Dearman’s wish, Tripp Johnson of Johnson Granite Supply in North Kansas City was compelled to contact Dearman and donate the monument, an enhanced design and installation.
Johnson immediately understood Dearman to be “a soul (who) … brings people together.” Just as he’s always thought of Delaney and the beacon of his story of running toward danger instead of away from it.
“What an inspiration. What can he teach us even years and years later?” said Johnson, a fourth-generation memorialist and owner of the company. “Let that next generation or two walk by and read this and think, ‘What would we do?’ “
We see that generosity of spirit illuminated daily now in the valor of our doctors and nurses and caregivers and first responders.
And it’s appropriately amplified by what seems to be an unprecedented appreciation for their remarkable efforts and sacrifices, whether in empty ballparks lit at night, or neighbors cheering them on, or in our hearts.
Beyond that, while some might try to exploit this situation, we are sustained by so many acts of kindness, gestures of giving instead of taking.
Enough that we can choose to focus on that to give it more life and light as we all face this question one way or another in this chaos:
“What’s our character going to be?” Johnson said.
Which brings us back to the affirming notion of how so many responded to Dearman’s initiative on behalf of a man whose selfless last act was both tragic and inspiring.
The call and response, Dearman said Tuesday, is “a feel-good story in these most difficult times.”
While some aspects of this project quite properly have been on pause in recent weeks as the focus is on more immediate causes, a man who has felt haunted over the years lately has been shedding tears of overwhelmed wonder about the kindness of strangers.
