Tragedy and hardship often strike at the most unexpected moments in the most brutal of ways

Tragedy and hardship often strike at the most unexpected moments in the most brutal of ways. While one can often make the case that the magnitude of pain is relative, there are events that everybody can agree will hurt like no other. First and foremost on that list is the loss of a loved one, and the worst among those is the loss of a child.

Often times, the only word that can be associated with this event is despair. There is a word for a person without their parents, an orphan; a person who lost their spouse, widow; but there is no word for someone who has lost a child.

Sadly this event occurred to Marcus Kowal, who lost his 15-month-old son Liam to a drunk driver while crossing the street. Following the incident, baby Liam continued to live up to his namesake, the people’s protector, by donating his organs and helping save the lives of need. Later on Marcus and his spouse Mishel started the foundation “Liam’s Life” to raise awareness of the dangers of drunk driving.

But Marcus did not stop there. To further raise awareness on drunk driving and the unnecessary sacrifice that Liam had to do, Marcus started the #liamchallenge in which he would perform 100 kicks daily to celebrate his son’s life for a year, and on the final day of the year perform 100 kicks every hour for 24 hours in order to break a world record for most kicks thrown in 24 hours and to once again continue to bring focus to the drunk driving problem.

It is very sad that there continue to be accidents that are attributed to drunk driving. With all the technological advances and alternatives for ridesharing, drunk driving should be a thing of the past. Too many people end up losing their lives as an indirect or direct impact because of drunk driving. Not all of the accidents could be attributed to malevolence, which is why Marcus and Mishel have decided to take direct action to educate people on the dangers of driving under the influence.

Marcus continues to move forward with head held high with his wife Mishel and his son Nico, who was born a year after Liam was killed.

Sponsored Content