With an open week for the Frogs, a lot of us outside of the TCU Football team turn our attention to catching up on things away from the field – errands, home repairs or just spending time with family.

My “To Do” list changed late Saturday night when I arrived back home from the Kansas game. I got some bad news. The kind of news that takes you way back.

You see, in 1968, I entered first grade at Mark Twain Elementary School in Dallas. In my class was a girl named Laurie Porter. We were buddies and in the same class most of the way through elementary school. She was nice. Always said “Hi” and was funny – had a great laugh.   She also was the sweetest person in school.

Years later, after college, I was delighted to find out that she had married my good friend Craig Way, who was, at the time, working at KRLD Radio in Dallas. Laurie and I would send messages to each other via Craig, the Voice of the Longhorns, as we ran into each other more frequently at broadcast assignments and games over the last 30 years. In the last ten years, I saw Laurie quite often at TCU-Texas football games, baseball games and NCAA Super Regionals. I also watched as she fought a brave battle with a cancer that came out of nowhere six years ago. Out of nowhere. There is no justice in this, no explanation.

While I stewed over TCU’s narrow win over Kansas late Saturday night, Laurie was leaving us. We lost her late that night. Her journey on this earth was done. So was her pain. Laurie Porter Way raised four great kids while keeping Craig on track as he ran from event to event to event for years. She was a hero to her family and to many around the athletic department at the University of Texas.

She’s a hero to me. Her death has hit me hard.

When someone from your childhood dies, it conjures up a lot of memories that make you say, “Wow, that doesn’t seem that long ago.” Thoughts of classrooms and class pictures, school hallways and the noise of laughter and conversations on the playground. Just running around being a kid. The end seemed far away then.

Today we’ll remember the good times with Laurie. As you read this, I’m on my way to Georgetown for a memorial service that will be full of tears, memories and laughter.

And sweetness. Just like Laurie.

I have one “Do” for you on Denton’s Do’s & Don’ts for today: Hug your loved ones.

Talk to you Friday.

Kick ‘Em High!