Tim Russert a devoted member of the Sandwich Generation

One of the things that has struck me the most about the untimely death of American journalist Tim Russert is what I’ve learned about how passionately devoted he was to his aging father and to his son, a recent graduate of Boston College.

Russert was so proud of his Irish Catholic heritage and of his father, “Big Russ”. Big Russ was a World War II veteran, a man who worked two full-time jobs to raise his family of four children. As a matter of fact, his father inspired two books, Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life and Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons.

After learning how much he reveled in fatherhood, and am so sad about his death happening right before Father’s Day.

He had an aging father and a son of his own, and, I think his mother died just a couple of years ago. He had just moved his father to a nursing home last week and had just returned to the country after celebrating his son’s graduation with a trip to Italy.

He was one of us.