Bob CollinsWe are mindful of Molly Kolstad’s words today.
“Things can happen in a moment, it just takes a moment and you really just don’t know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have,” she told reporters last night before her husband, who was nearly beaten to death, led his former Mankato football team onto the field for its first game of the year.
Molly Kolstad is nothing if not strong.
The images, played out on TV and newspapers today, couldn’t have come at a better time for our collective psyche, a time when it feels as though we are at the whim of the evils — intended and unintended — that are visited upon us. Though we are often powerless to prevent that which we can’t see coming, we have full control over how we respond to it.
From her account, Isaac Kolstad should be dead from the beating he received on a Mankato sidewalk.
“That first scan was just detrimental,” she said. “They thought there’s really, we’re not seeing what we want to see, this is the worse thing we’ve ever seen, nobody comes back from that, that’s what we were told, nobody comes back from this. So to go from that, hey he’s gonna be a husband, he’s gonna be a father, it’s incredible. I couldn’t ask for a better result, really, I just need my husband, I need my husband back and that’s what I got.”
Nobody comes back from that.
Tell it to Isaac Kolstad. Tell it to the family that had to shake off and leave behind the way things were supposed to be before something happened in a moment.
Isaac Kolstad led the Minnesota State, Mankato Mavericks football team on the field @ Blakeslee Stadium. pic.twitter.com/BOSt91Iocn
— Carlos Gonzalez (@CarlosGphoto) September 4, 2014
Impressive scene b4 MSU fb game as Isaac Kolstad leads team to the field. #22strong pic.twitter.com/sLEMyZO01u
— Pat Christman (@PCphoto) September 4, 2014
Isaac Kolstad returns to Mankato football field after near-fatal beating – http://t.co/gOfm75Xag9 pic.twitter.com/QR8C7i6eah
— Pioneer Press (@PioneerPress) September 5, 2014
There’s still a long way to go for the young man. He can’t say more than three words at a time — reporters were asked not to talk to him last night — and he’s still unable to go home.
But he’s putting up a fight. She’s putting up a fight. And for one night, it was good for the family, it was good for football, it was good for us to be reminded how strong we can be when it’s the only good choice we have.
