Something a little different today.
One of Beagle Man’s very favorite kids in the entire world, Andrew Accardi, passed away last week at the age of 20, after battling pediatric neuroblastoma for 15 years. My own personal remembrance of Andrew will be in tomorrow’s print version of the Westport News. (You can see it now in the Westport News on-line version.) If, as they say, Andrew’s spirit lives on in all of us, well, that is one damn strong spirit.
There were a lot of tremendously uplifting moments at the memorial service and reception in Andrew’s honor yesterday, but what made me feel especially good was the outpouring of love and admiration from Andrew’s Villanova friends and fraternity brothers, who came up to CT en masse from Philadelphia. Their devotion to Andrew was put to words in this poem by one of those friends, and was included in the celebration of Andrew’s life. I’d like it if you would read it:
His Army
There is a man who goes simply by his surname
Behind this man stands an army
This army would follow him to the end
Because they know he is strong
They know that he would never lead them astray
He taught them through his actions how to live life
To live without fear
Without regrets
With complete abandon
He showed them by example what it meant to be alive
To live every day as a gift to be opened
To be grateful for the mundane as much as the thrills
To dance with the ecstasy of life
He exemplified what courage was and what it was not
That being bigger does not mean being better or stronger
That size does not equate to strength
That words are more powerful than fists
Their leader had qualities they strive for today
To laugh when life has given you a bad hand
To smile when pain wants you to wince
To stand right back up when life beats you down
He also taught them that it was okay to show emotion
To yell when others were living a lie
To get mad when others tell you you can’t
To cry when you need help
When he was on his way out, to a place far better than this
He told two of them that he knew it was over
He told them that his secret to life was to not let things bother him
That every day he lived out of bed was the best day of his life
Physically their leader is no longer with them
But spiritually he will never leave
This army of his continues
It continues to march on
They do not wear uniforms to be identified
Looking upon one you would never know
His soldiers stay humble in their words
But you can tell a soldier by the way he lives each day
A soldier proves his allegiance through his actions and motives
He is passionate, unselfish and worthy to love because he loves
He lives with gratitude, loyalty and gusto
He tries to prove his leader’s life was not in vain
He tries to live up to his leader’s standards for life
He lives for a moral, a passion, a meaning
He lives for Accardi, he lives for his Army
Although your life was much too short
It was more full than many of us could wish to hope for
You influenced more people than you probably even knew
And changed each one of us for the better
You have the most beautiful soul I have ever met
And I cannot wait to once again fight by your side
– William Rattigan, Villanova
Andrew Accardi is actually the General of “Andrew’s Army,” a charitable organization inspired by him that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Neuroblastoma research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. To make a contribution in Andrew’s memory, checks should be made out to Andrew’s Army in Support of CHOP, and sent to: Maura Mitarotondo, 64 Shorefront Park, Norwalk, CT 06854
LOOK FOR A NEW BEAGLE MAN POST EVERY THURSDAY. OR PRETTY CLOSE TO THURSDAY. COULD BE WEDNESDAY. OR FRIDAY. LET’S NOT GET TOO OBSESSIVE HERE . . . 
OH, AND BTW, YOU CAN ALSO FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER
Beautiful…