On Saturday, October 17, Jasper Howard, a cornerback for the UConn football team, spearheaded the Huskies’ defense in a 38-25 win over Louisville at Rentschler Field. Nine hours after his career-high 11 tackles and a forced fumble that halted a Louisville comeback, Howard was dead, yet another victim in our nation’s continuing saga of on-campus violence.

Lesser tragedies have decimated football teams before. Indeed, UConn’s next three games—at West Virginia, Rutgers, at Cincinnati—were heartbreaking last-minute losses.

Something happened after that—a season that could have gone sour turned into a season of heroes. It started with an overtime victory at Notre Dame, which UConn coach Randy Edsall called the biggest win in the history of the university’s football program.

In its last two games, UConn demolished Syracuse and—in drama befitting such a season—defeated South Florida on a last-second field goal. The Huskies will try to win one more for Jasper Howard when they play South Carolina at the Jan. 2 Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.

What are heroes made of?

The cells and tissue in the human body renew themselves so quickly that we have new skin every 30 days. Even more surprisingly, we have a new skeleton every six months. Change isn’t just inevitable—it’s always happening, day by day, hour by hour.

When we understand that nothing stays the same—not even our skeleton—we’re better prepared to cope with potentially devastating changes, such as the loss of a loved one.

When a change in your life seems more than you can manage, or when change is terrifying, take heart: Even heroes feel afraid. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”

What are heroes made of? They’re made of the same cells and tissue as the rest of us. This New Year we’re all Huskies: Be a hero today to someone who needs you.

It only takes five minutes.

Share your story

Are you dealing with the loss of a loved one this New Year? Share your grief with us so that we might also share in your healing.

Scrooge Should Have Filled Out the Memorial Service Pre-Planning Guide

If Ebenezer Scrooge had taken the time to fill out the Memorial Service Pre-Planning Guide, he could have slept soundly through that terrifying Christmas Eve. The ghost of Jacob Marley would have had no reason to visit him.

The Pre-Planning Guide is an important part of your will and estate planning. First, it’s your way to make sure your family has detailed information concerning your wishes for a funeral or memorial service. Second, it’s a vital element in the healing process for your surviving loved ones.

If Ebenezer Scrooge had filled out the Pre-Planning Guide, his answers might have looked something like this:

Question: The things in life that have given me the greatest enjoyment are:

Answer: Expressing my disgust for Christmas celebrations. Bah, humbug!

Question: If I could live my life over again, I would spend less time:

Answer: Exploiting my employees and lashing out at people who love me.

Question: If I could live my life over again, I would spend more time:

Answer: With my family and friends…uh, the few that can stand to be near me.

Question: Something I always wanted to do but never got around to:

Answer: Creating lasting, loving relationships with the people who care about me.

In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ classic tale of redemption and transformation, Ebenezer Scrooge repents and makes amends for a lifetime of bitterness and greed.

Like Scrooge, we all need to ask the right questions while we still have time to act on the insights they give us. As long as we’re breathing, we have an opportunity to rewrite the future.

You can get started today by answering the questions in our Guide. Download our Memorial Service Pre-Planning Guide and sleep soundly through all your Christmas Eves.

Tell us your thoughts!

How would you answer these four questions? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Tell us about something you always wanted to do but never got around to. Then ask yourself, what’s stopping me from doing it now?

Remember: The real tragedy in life is not death, but never having lived.