Gamers Sharing A Heart – Uniting To Help A Grieving Widow
When I first heard about the Brian Wood story, I was shocked and in amazement of what had actually happened. For those of you who don’t know about the story, I will fill you in on some details.
Brian Wood, the Lead Designer of the Company of Heroes Online game, was driving with his wife, who is pregnant, toward their home on Whidbey Island in Washington State on September 3rd. An out-of-control Chevrolet Blazer crossed into their lane and collided into the Wood’s Subaru Wagon.
Immediately Brian knew that a severe collision was unavoidable, and he performed one of the most heroic acts I have witnessed in a long while. Brian swerved the wagon just in time so that the Blazer would smash into his side, with him taking the full force of the crash. Putting himself between the Blazer and his family, Brian sacrificed his life to save those of his wife and unborn child.
Gamers from all around the world raised voices for the cause, and started to send their best wishes, condolences, and donations to the widow in her time of need. Erin Wood sent an email to Kotaku, explaining how she felt about the incident and how the gaming community is helping with her terribly painful loss.
Hello.
My name is Erin Wood, and I wanted to send a request to please pass along my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to the gaming community for the overwhelming support provided to me in the past two weeks. I asked coworkers of Brian how I might best send my thanks, and they recommended sending them to Kotaku – hence this email. Any way you can help share this with the community would be much appreciated.
Brian always told me about how close-knit and wonderful the video game community was, but I had no idea until this tragedy just how special a group it really is. From all the articles and comments, to the emails and donations, I am simply stunned and so touched by the love, kindness, and generosity shown to me and my family. As everyone knows, the last 10 days have been the most difficult, dark days of my life. But this journey has been eased tremendously by the thoughts, prayers, and well wishes received from friends, family, and strangers living all over the world. It is so meaningful for me to hear about how his work and enthusiasm for the industry has touched others. Brian was completely and utterly devoted to the game industry, and was pretty much living his dream every day. He woke up every morning excited to be working in such a creative, demanding field. It was such a joy to be married to someone who was absolutely passionate about his professional life.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the compassion and support. It is so appreciated, and has been a light to me in this impossible situation.
Warm wishes,
Erin
All of our thoughts and prayers here at GamerFront go out to Erin Wood, and the rest of the Wood’s family in this time of need. To visit the Memorial Trust webpage click here.To read more on the Brian Wood story, click here.
