Life is Too Short

I think the following story tugged at my heart for a few reasons. 

I feel like I am spending too much time away from my family.  I feel like I need to be home more often and stories like the one posted below score the importance of that belief.  I also thought of my son Josh when I read this story because of the similarities between Josh and Austin Hatch.  Josh is athletic and will have an opportunity to run track at the next level and I am certainly proud of his accomplishments.  And I can't imagine Josh losing his entire family and then going on after such tragedies.  I feel for this young man, Austin Hatch, and hope that you will hold him in your prayers as he fights for his life.

DETROIT (AP) -- A standout Indiana high school basketball player with the promise of playing at the University of Michigan is fighting for his life after surviving the second plane crash of his young life.
  
Austin Hatch, 16, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was in critical condition Saturday in a northern Michigan hospital after the Friday evening crash that killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim. Austin and his pilot father had survived a 2003 crash that killed Austin's mother and two siblings.
  
The teen was "the apple of his dad's eye," and Stephen Hatch took great delight and pride in his son's athletic accomplishments, Dr. G. David Bojrab, a colleague and close friend of the father's, told The Associated Press.
  
Austin, a junior at Canterbury School in Fort Wayne, Ind., committed earlier this month to play basketball at Michigan, where his father and mother went to school.
  
He told the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a story published last week that he talked to Michigan coach John Beilein by phone and accepted a full-ride scholarship. It was the first day that NCAA coaches could call recruits for the 2013 class, the newspaper said.
  
"It was a very special moment for me," Hatch told the newspaper. "There was no reason to wait. There's nothing I don't like about their program, and I couldn't turn it down."
  
Canterbury coach Dan Kline, who spoke with Michigan coaches before the offer, told the newspaper it was Austin's "dream" to play for Michigan.

Bojrab said the Hatches were flying to their summer home on Walloon Lake in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula, where Stephen Hatch and his brothers all owned property, when his single-engine plane flew into a garage near the Charlevoix Municipal Airport. It was the same home Stephen Hatch and the family were returning from nearly eight years ago when they crashed in Indiana.
A 2005 federal report on the September 2003 crash found inaccurate preflight planning resulted in the plane not having enough fuel. The National Transportation Safety Board determined a utility pole the airplane hit during its forced landing, a low ceiling and dark night also contributed to the crash.
  
Bojrab said his friend disputed the report's findings, believing equipment failure caused the crash.
  
"When he crashed, it was an inferno, which makes you wonder how he could have been out of gas," Bojrab said.
  
Hatch saved Austin, but his other children -- Lindsay, 11, and Ian, 5 -- died along with his wife, Julie, 38.
  
"His wife and two children were in flames and he was never able to reach them," Bojrab said. "Steve reached over to his son who was sitting in front with him and tossed him out the window to save his life."

Beilein said in a statement that the university was saddened to hear about the tragedy affecting the Hatches. "Austin needs as much support right now as possible and I know he will be in the thoughts and prayers of the Michigan family during this difficult time," he said.
  
Canterbury School said in a statement it released Saturday to "keep Austin and his family in your thoughts and prayers."