INDIANAPOLIS — Tears for a tremendous loss have been met with smiles of remembrances.
Grief has been followed by gratitude. Despair with courage.
The past year has been an emotional blur for Judy Nash, the widowed wife of Broncos running back Damien Nash who died unexpectedly a year ago today of apparent heart failure. To honor Nash’s life, a candlelight vigil will be today at the Lake Charles Park Cemetery in St. Louis where he rests.
“It’s been kind of hard,” Judy Nash said of the past year. “You try to hang on and make it through. But our family has also come to really appreciate life. In many ways, the past year has gone by so fast.”
Nash had just finished playing a charity basketball game he organized for the sake of heart patients on Feb. 24, 2007, when he returned home and collapsed. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Damien and Judy have a daughter Phaith, who is 18 months old.
The Broncos learned of Nash’s death while most of their scouts, coaches and executives were here at the NFL scouting combine, as they are now.
During the past year, Judy Nash said she receives phone calls approximately three times a month from Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall, who flew in to play in Nash’s charity basketball game, and fullback Cecil Sapp. Cindy Galloway Kellogg, the Broncos’ vice president of community affairs, has also helped Nash in various matters relating to her husband’s death.
“I can’t thank the Broncos enough for their support system,” she said. “Some people forget about you after a while, but the Broncos have always been there. I’d make a phone call and I’d get a phone call back.”
