Friday, October 1st 2021, 9:35 pm
People in McAlester are helping a high school football player who lost his mother to COVID recently, and his stepfather to a heart condition less than two years ago.
Now 17-year-old Avion Simon is raising his two young siblings who are both under the age of 10.
Charity Prather said Simon is one of the toughest kids she's ever met.
“I don’t know if I could do it. To have lost my mom and my dad, but to see him do it, I mean it really is it’s like this is the strongest kid I know," she said.
Prather and many others like McAlester High School football coach Forrest Mazey have been helping Simon any way they can.
“It’s tough to watch a kid go through that. And knowing what he must be feeling and then still seeing him show up and work and sometimes I wonder how hard that is on him," Mazey said.
At times, that meant driving with him to Tulsa to visit his mom in the hospital.
“One of his teammates and his mom drove him up there because they didn’t want him driving up alone to go see his mom and do those things. Make those decisions that no kid should have to make," he said.
Simon's part-time job helps him get by, but the community has started helping him with bills, and food.
Simon's mom died just two weeks ago. Mazey said every day since, Simon's stayed strong.
“He was at weights the next morning at 6:30 and I was kind of taken aback by that. It’s his release. It’s his way to escape a little bit," Mazey said.
Friday night the stadium took a moment of silence for Simon's mom. It's a show of support and a sign the community will always have Simon's back.
To support Simon and his family, click on this GoFundMe here.
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