Remembering the Life of Tim Russert

Michael Gartner, President of NBC News from 1988-1993, is our neighbor.  He wrote a beautiful tribute to Tim since he was the person who really put Tim in front of the television camera.  Gartner shares a story that Tim included in his book Big Russ and Me.  It is a story that is worth remembering in tough times.  Christopher, one of Gartner's sons, idolized Tim and he died in 1993 at the age of 17 from an initial attack of juvenile diabetes. 

"Within hours of Christopher's death, the phone rang and it was Russert.  I was in tears, and he seemed to be, too.  He expressed his deep sorrow, and then he said:  'Look, if God had come to you 17 years ago and said, 'I'll make you a bargain.  I'll give you a beautiful, wonderful, happy and healthy kid for 17 years, and then I'll take him away, you would have made that deal in a second.'"

"He was right, of course, that was the deal.  I just didn't know it.  As it turns out, there was a similar deal --the terms were 58 years--with Tim.  We just didn't know it."

We just didn't know it.