Ben Utecht wrote a letter and a song to his wife and daughters for the day he can no longer remember who they are, he told Congress.
“I wrote the letter on a plane ride home with the brim of my hat over my eyes to hide the tears as they began to flow,” said Utecht, 32, who was a tight end for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts and the Cincinnati Bengals before suffering a career-ending concussion in 2009. (Continued below video…)
Traumatic Brain Injuries can cause Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a degenerative brain tied to repeated hits to the head. Its symptoms progress from confusion and depression to full-blown dementia.
Utecht said he took his memory for granted until a moment of “mental darkness”: he failed to recall his friend’s wedding despite appearing in several photos from the event.
“Page after page I was in disbelief,” Utecht said after he was handed the wedding’s photo album. “Seeing myself in numerous pictures, as a groomsman and singing for them a song. To this day, I still have no memory of that event.”
Now, Utecht said he hopes to help “tackle” brain disease. He asked the Senators in the room to be his coaches and come up with a strategy.
Ben inspired Congress to do more with an encouraging vision: “We can become world champions on a new gridiron – the field of our identity,”.
Utecht shared the song inspired by the letter he wrote. It is called “You will Always Be My Girls.” The lyrics are:
I am in here counting the days
While my mind is slippin’ away
I’ll hold on as long as I can to you
I may not remember your name
Or the smell of the cool summer rain
Everything and nothing has changed, nothing has changed
And I will remember your smile and your laughter
Long ever after this moment is gone
You will always be my girls
You’re the beauty of my world
And no matter how tomorrow unfurls
You will always be my girls
I can still feel you here in this place beyond all tears
Where love does what it does, it stays, yes it stays
And I will remember your smile and your laughter
Long ever after this moment is gone
You will always be my girls
You’re the beauty of my world
And no matter how tomorrow unfurls
You will always be my girls
Seasons turned and turned again
Till they became remember when.
The love in your hearts made this man complete
My Cinderella’s you danced on my feet
You will always be my girls
You’re the beauty of my world,
You’re the only thing that matters, that matters to me
You will always be the one I come running to
And no matter how tomorrow unfurls
Till the moment I am done with this world
My yesterday babies in curls
You will always be my girls.
