It was his aside that spoiled the secret identity of Santa Claus; he who laughingly revealed the mechanics of sex; he who gave me my first sip of beer. Yet, when he found out I was sneaking cigarettes from my dad's stale dinner party supply, he chastised me before either of my parents could, and when my mum was diagnosed with cancer and I was just 15, he was already a 22-year-old medical student.
Schaefer has been open about the loss of his mother to cancer, and how speaking about it rather than burying it has helped him heal. With his rise to the No. 1 pick and the attention that comes with it, he has chosen to use that platform. He has made it a priority to meet young kids who have gone through a similar loss - not for a camera, not as a charity date on a calendar, but because he understands the scar.
Another summer is over and, for Jos Buttler, life and cricket feel more precious than ever. The fleeting nature of both has been accentuated by the loss of Buttler's father, John, after his unexpected death in August. The 35-year-old will soon talk movingly about grief and acceptance but, first, he reflects on his venerable place in white-ball cricket after England's international summer ended in a low-key series in Ireland.
The Stoic Seneca (d. 65 CE) is the master of the "consolation," a letter written for the express purpose of comforting someone who has been bereaved. Seneca wrote at least three consolations, to Marcis, to Polybius, and to Helvia. In the Consolation to Helvia, he comforts his own mother Helvia on "losing" him to exile-an unusual case, and literary innovation, of the lamented consoling the lamenter.