For all the bad and ugliness in the world, sometimes it helps to remember there’s a lot of good out there, too.
The Invictus Games are a creation of Prince Harry’s and are designed specifically for wounded, sick, or injured armed services members to take part in a variety of sporting events.
Prince Harry is passionate about the games because of his own service and spends a lot of time with veterans. That passion doesn’t stop with the competitors of the games, however. Recently, while in Austrailia where the games are being held, Harry was photographed with the grieving widow of a veteran who served in Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The widow, Invictus Games ambassador Gwen Cherne, shared with Harry that her husband took his life in February of this year.
Feeling her grief and no stranger to mental health issues himself, Harry talked with her a long while. Then, when palace aides tried to hurry him along, he simply replied, “I’m in the middle of a conversation and I’m not going to leave this.”
Prince Harry brushes aside aides to comfort Aussie widow, https://t.co/euMv1fqRSp pic.twitter.com/FRQZsN6Q4g
— Toronto Sun (@TheTorontoSun) October 23, 2018
Prince Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was always criticized by royal traditionalists for how interactive and charitable she was with her fans, and this is a quality many see in her equally caring son.
In addition to that heartwarming interaction, people have been talking about another demonstration of selfless love that occurred during the games.
The UK Daily Mail reported Monday about a wheelchair-bound veteran competing in the Invictus Games who had a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) attack triggered by a helicopter flying overhead.
The man, Paul Guest, a British mine warfare specialist and former navy servicemen, “was so overcome with emotion he was unable to play and needed to be comforted by Dutch teammate Edwin Vermetten, who realised he was suffering.”
“As play was interrupted by the sound, Vermetten rushed to the other side of the court to comfort him,” the report continued. “The Dutchman then grabbed Guest by the shoulders and pulled their foreheads together before he sang to the man in a touching moment of camaraderie.”
The sound of a helicopter above the arena made British wounded warrior Paul Guest emotional at @InvictusSydney His partner told him to "look into my eyes & sing the ‘Frozen’ song." They did. "For him, this was the moment he let go, and he did." And they won the match.
I ❤️sports pic.twitter.com/xp9omDNRIf
— Robert Lusetich (@RobertLusetich) October 23, 2018
“Let it go”
What happened next – with a little help from the theme of the popular Disney film “Frozen” – Idina Menzel’s “Let it Go” – brought spectators to tears:
‘I took him by the face and said ‘Look at me. We are a team so let it go,” Vermetten said, according to the Invictus Games website.
Look into my eyes and sing the Frozen song, and we did.
‘For him, this was the moment he let go, and he did, he literally let it all go,’ he said.
As the men hugged, there wasn’t a dry eye in sight.