Perry Tuttle FTW

Mar 25, 2013, 2:16 PM

Perry Tuttle spoke at the TEDx Greenville event last Friday, and I had the pleasure of hearing him speak. I had never heard him speak before, nor did I know anything about him other than he was an All-American and a big part of the 81 National Championship team.

His topic was called "In before dark (While I can...) vague, but all of the TED titles seem to be.

What I did not know is that he has a degenerative eye condition and he will be soon losing his eyesight. In his story he emplored the audience to "Do all you can, while you can."

He said that when he got the diagnosis, he gathered his wife and 6 children around and told them of the illness. It was a very emotional time, and he asked each one of them what they wanted to do with him in the limited amount of time he had left with sight.

His oldest said he wanted to travel to Europe. He is an artist, and wants to take in all of the great pieces of art. His other son plays football, and wanted to be coached by his dad. Last year he got to coach him, and on his son's last play of the year, he scored a TD. He said it was an amazing moment for he and his son to share. On and on he told of the wishes that he had already accomplished with his children, or the ones he hoped to accomplish. Each time telling the crowd to do all you can while you can. One item that had not been accomplished was seeing his daughter sing onstage. She loves to sing, and she wanted him to get the opportunity to see her.

When he brought his topic to a close, he evoked such emotion with the crowd that he was the only speaker of the day to get a standing ovation.

As he walked off the stage, the emcee brought him back, and said "You didn't know this was going to happen, but we want you to sit down here...we have a surprise for you."

Out walks all of his children...and his daughter is holding a microphone. Perry begins to weep..and so does everyone else.

His daughter, backed up by the rest of the Tuttle choir sang Hero by Mariah Carey.

It was one of the most touching and emotional things I have ever seen. Perry was overcome with emotion and heartfelt gratitude to all who were involved. Truly a special moment for his family. I felt privileged to be there to witness it.

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Perry Tuttle FTW

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