Ten years ago this Friday, on Utah's big annual holiday, 15-year-old Grant Shields was watching coverage of the Days of '47 parade on television when the cameras showed footage of hundreds of runners participating in the annual Deseret News-sponsored 5K, 10K and marathon races.
Grant turned to his father, Eric, and said, "Hey, Dad, let's you and me run that next year."
Those were among the last words Grant Shields ever spoke.
Just hours later, he was playing with a friend not far from their homes. They were floating in a canal that crossed Center Street in Orem. As they neared a point where the open water disappeared into a culvert that ran under the street, Grant saw a ball and paddled to retrieve it. In the process he got caught in the vortex, and the force of the water pressure sucked him into the drain. His friend reached out and grabbed his hand to pull him back, but their hands were slippery and Grant slid away.
The culvert was drained, but too late. Grant was dead.
A July 24th does not pass that everyone in his family doesn't think about Grant.
To help honor his memory, it has become something of a Shields family tradition to participate in the Deseret News races.
This year, marking 10 years since Grant's passing, as many as 40 of Grant's relatives will be running in either the 5K, 10K or marathon. Maybe more.
"It's our tribute to Grant and a way for us to bond as a family," says Lisa Remund, Grant's aunt who lives in Midway. "We're a sports oriented family, and we think it's great to be physically fit. We believe in that."
Lisa and her husband, Lynn, will be up and running this Friday morning along with five of their six children. The 4-year-old will sit this one out with his grandmother, Louine Shields, the family matriarch who is 82.
The extended Shields family is not a small clan. Eric and Lisa are among nine siblings, all now married with an average of six children each. Grant has 54 cousins, plus in-laws. All of them won't be running, but most of them will be.
That includes all seven of Grant's brothers and sisters, along with his mom, Heidi, and his dad, Eric. Also add in two sons-in-law.
"It's good to remember Grant's enthusiasm for life," says his father, an avid runner who has participated in five marathons, including the Deseret News, which he ran two years after Grant's death in tribute to his son.
Eric Shields wore Grant's favorite hat — a BYU hat from the Las Vegas Bowl — in that marathon and he'll wear it again Friday in the 10K.
Grant loved all sports, says his dad. He played basketball around the clock and was just getting into track when he died.
Sports helped him assimilate into society and overcome some of his learning disabilities, says Eric. Although Grant's condition was never diagnosed as such, his Aunt Lisa thinks it's possible he had Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, or something similar.
"It was so innocent of him just to go after that ball," she says, remembering the day he died.
"Grant was made fun of a lot because of his disabilities," Lisa adds. "At his funeral it was a wake-up call to a lot of people to treat everyone nice regardless of their circumstances."
The summer he died, "Grant was just coming into his own," wrote his father in an eloquent essay he penned not long after the fateful day a decade ago. "His mind didn't work like most people's. He didn't understand a lot of things. But he did not hold grudges or take offense. He was so innocent. His resource teacher at school said it this way at the funeral: 'He saw the best in everyone, and at times his niceness surpassed others' unkindnesses, because Grant was naive to them. Other times he knew all too well the meaning of their unkindness, but he, being the bigger person, chose to ignore them.' "
"I still wonder if he knew before he was born that he would be on this Earth for only 15 years," Eric Shields wrote, remembering the day his son drew his first breath. "I can see him in my mind's eye, arm lifted high in the air, hand reaching, stretching, grasping for attention, volunteering to go. That's how he was, always wanting to go, without even knowing where he was going."
Or realizing just how many people he would inspire to get off the couch and start running.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com.