On June 22nd, just days ago, the world stood for a promising young man who had everything ahead of him, life and a whole lot of beautiful things.
Diogo Jota, a talented soccer player who played for Liverpool, as he walked down the aisle to marry the love of his life. If he had good days, this one was the best of them all. That is how it feels for everyone.
There is nothing sweeter than marriage and maybe you get to know, three years later, if you are asked to sign divorce papers, that marriage is also sour.
Diogo had his loved ones around as he took the biggest step of his life. His teammates were there. His family. His children, still so young, watched their parents begin a new journey and they were happy because it was a promise of a very good life, for them, ahead.
But just days later, everything changed and it was not for good. In a car accident in Spain, Diogo Jota’s life was taken. The same man who had just looked into his wife’s eyes was now gone. Forever. No goodbye. No time to prepare. One second, he was dreaming and planning for his family, the next he was a memory.
Diogo was not alone when the accident happened, he was with his own brother, André Silva, another star, another star. Both brothers taken in a blink of an eye. Two sons. Two friends. Two fathers, perhaps. Two lives, just in one day. There is no pain greater than this.
One moment, you are looking at wedding photos. The next, you are looking at coffins covered in flowers. The same hands that held a wedding ring now lie still, lifeless. The same face that smiled for wedding cameras now rests in peace.
There is no amount of time, that can ever truly heal a father, child, wife and a mother who loses such a soul.
Their mother, now forced to bury both sons, will wake up every day wondering if it is just a bad dream. Their father, perhaps still struggling to come to term with this loss, may sit every evening, waiting for his sons who will never walk through the door again.
But the saddest part of it all, is Diogo’s wife, just two weeks ago, she promised to walk beside him until death do them part. No one thought death would come so soon. And their children too young to understand this loss, not old enough to feel that something is missing. They will grow up without a loving father.
There are no answers for this kind of pain. This is life. Beautiful, fragile, and completely unfair. It doesn’t wait for our dreams to become into reality. It doesn’t care how much love you have found or how much you have planned. Life moves forward, and death, uninvited, just arrives.
We all like to think we have time. We make plans, set goals, chase dreams. We think tomorrow is guaranteed. But the story of these two brothers is a reminder that none of us truly knows how many days we have left with. One day, you are holding your child in your arms. The next, they are standing over the grave of a loved one. One day, you are dancing with your bride, the next, she is dressed in black, lighting candles for your soul, that will never return.
The story of these brothers must teach us that, we must love now. We must forgive now. We must tell people how much they mean to us today, not next week, not when the time is right, not when we are less busy. Because sometimes, there is no next week. Sometimes, the time we thought we had, is stolen from us in a cruel twist of fate.
This is not just the story of two footballers. It’s the story of all of us, because loss doesn’t choose its victims. It knocks on any door, any time. What happened to Diogo and André could happen to anyone (God Forbid). And that is what makes it so real.
But it also makes it so important to live with intention. To show up for the people we love. To slow down and be present. Because if this story teaches us anything, it is that life is a fragile and we never know when it will go out. Maybe, we all remember, even in our own lives, to cherish every moment, because sometimes, all it takes is a single second, and everything changes forever.