My cousin, friend Terry Profitt was one of the finest men I ever knew

When you have worked in journalism as long as I have, you get used to dealing with a lot of bad, terrible stuff.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

It makes you jaded, really jaded.

You reach the point where it takes a lot to just floor you.

Then you have one of those periods when you get news that shocks you not once, but twice over a 10-day period.

Week before last, I got to work on Thursday morning to find out that Sharon Manning, who was the wife of my co-worker, Dean Manning, had died in her sleep. One of my co-workers described it as the second worse day in News Journal history. We were all in shock.

This death hit me a lot harder than it might ordinarily would have because it brought up flashbacks to my mother’s death nearly 20 years ago.

My mother apparently had a heart attack and died suddenly in her sleep. She had gotten up to go lay on the couch in the middle of the night, and dad found her dead there that morning.

Friday night, I was out having dinner with my wonderful wife, Cecelia – she frequently asks if I wrote how wonderful she was in my column…LOL – when my cellphone rang. It was my stepmother telling me that the second finest man that I have ever known, besides my dad, had passed away suddenly. His youngest son had gone by his house and found him dead. They think it was a heart attack.

Terry Profitt and my dad were much more like brothers than cousins. They were roughly the same age. They grew up together. The middle name of Terry’s oldest son is Michael after my dad. My middle name is Donald after Terry’s middle name and after my dad’s college roommate Don Walden.

Terry was more like an uncle or second father to me rather than just a cousin. He was a role model for me.

He was a good man and a hard worker. He was a good, Godly man, who was active in his church. Terry was a deacon, had been Sunday School superintendent at his church, and was one of those people, who counted the offering. You know, one of those really honest, trustworthy people.

Several times Terry and my dad have come over to my house to watch the Superbowl, but Terry always went to his Sunday night church service before he came by.

My condolences go out to his three sons, Mickey, Jerry and Jacob, the rest of his family, and his church family. The world was a far better place with Terry Profitt in it.

As tough as it might have been to imagine, I think 2021 might just be proving to be worse than 2020 was.

I think nearly all of us can agree that we will be glad to see 2022 get here.

Now to touch on a few subjects before I conclude this column.

• I finally had the chance to meet the “other” Mark White in Whitley County as in Whitley County High School Basketball Coach Mark White, who is starting his second season as head coach. He is an interesting guy. I enjoyed meeting him.

• The reason that I was meeting Coach White was to interview him for our district basketball preview section, which readers will find in Dec. 4 edition of the News Journal next week.

I had a good time interviewing Coach White and WCHS Lady Colonels Coach Sean Pigman late Thursday afternoon.

A big thank you to former sports editor Trevor Sherman, who is helping us out by writing several stories for this section. Trevor is a great guy, who has been missed, but we are happy for him being able to pursue other aspirations.

• I would encourage all of the youngsters to check out the cover of our B Section in this week’s edition of the News Journal to see what surprise Santa Claus has up his sleeve for Christmas in the Tri-County area. Claus’s surprise will arrive on Dec. 1, so stay tuned for updates from the big guy in red throughout the month of December.