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It’s true, what she says about the graves. I went to see them not long after I heard Lonise Bias tell an incredible story to a group of South Carolina high school students: While witnessing the burial of her son Jay, she looked down and realized she was standing on the grave of her eldest son, Leonard. I had assumed it was a rhetorical flourish, a metaphor crafted for effect by a guest speaker who was getting paid to whack some sobriety into a room of spaced-out pubescents with self-image issues. But then I drove to the cemetery, in a Maryland suburb of Washington called Suitland, and I trudged up a hill, and I found the markers, a couple of rectangles blotched with age, stamped into the dirt and rocks and tufts of grass. And it is true — there is perhaps a foot of space between her boys. They are, quite literally, resting side by side.

Rob Tringali for ESPN.com
Len and Jay Bias, brothers who died less than five years apart, are literally now resting side by side.
The graves, tucked together like this, are a stark testimony to the complexity of Lonise Bias’ grief. It is impossible to comprehend the hellish depths she has plumbed, and it is equally difficult to see how she emerged with such palpable vigor, determination and self-assurance. This is what makes her come across as a bit strange, especially to a roomful of teenagers; instead of crushing her spirit, unspeakable family tragedy has stripped her of the angst and self-doubt that paralyzes much of her audience. She opens her speeches by telling people she does not particularly care what they think of her, which permits her to bellow phrases like, “I AM THE LEGACY THAT WAS LEFT BEHIND!” and “I CAME THROUGH TO SHOW YOU THE WAY!” and somehow make them sound authoritative rather than bombastic.

“I’ve been termed as being ABNORMALLY ENTHUSIASTIC,” she is saying. “But I am full of passion BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU. I am standing here to TELL YOU that you CAN MAKE IT.”

It is a Monday morning, and Lonise Bias is sweating underneath the spotlights on the stage of a high school auditorium in a quiet corner of South Carolina. The assembly is mandatory. And it doesn’t matter that no one in this room knows who she is anymore, or who her sons were, or where they came from, or why her story means anything at all. It doesn’t matter that she was hired blind by a teacher who read her biography on the Web site of a speakers’ bureau and thought, “Well, that sounds kind of appropriate for a schoolwide assembly,” and it doesn’t matter that she momentarily forgets where she is, and refers to the students of Greenwood High School as the students of Greenville. It doesn’t matter, because it is hard not to listen when a woman with this kind of overbearing presence IS TALKING RIGHT AT YOU.

She has always possessed a robust set of vocal cords. When she was in elementary school, and the faculty needed a child to speak loudly enough for a large group to hear, they chose her. She grew up tall and imposing, with a natural-born gravity; after her speech at Greenwood, more than one student said Lonise Bias reminded them of their mothers. Perhaps, she always thought, she would teach someday, but she imagined it would be in Sunday school, not in a place like this, a public school several hundred miles from the suburban Maryland county where her life has played out like a soap opera.

It’s true, what she says about the graves. I went to see them not long after I heard Lonise Bias tell an incredible story to a group of South Carolina high school students: While witnessing the burial of her son Jay, she looked down and realized she was standing on the grave of her eldest son, Leonard. I had assumed it was a rhetorical flourish, a metaphor crafted for effect by a guest speaker who was getting paid to whack some sobriety into a room of spaced-out pubescents with self-image issues. But then I drove to the cemetery, in a Maryland suburb of Washington called Suitland, and I trudged up a hill, and I found the markers, a couple of rectangles blotched with age, stamped into the dirt and rocks and tufts of grass. And it is true — there is perhaps a foot of space between her boys. They are, quite literally, resting side by side.

Rob Tringali for ESPN.com
Len and Jay Bias, brothers who died less than five years apart, are literally now resting side by side.
The graves, tucked together like this, are a stark testimony to the complexity of Lonise Bias’ grief. It is impossible to comprehend the hellish depths she has plumbed, and it is equally difficult to see how she emerged with such palpable vigor, determination and self-assurance. This is what makes her come across as a bit strange, especially to a roomful of teenagers; instead of crushing her spirit, unspeakable family tragedy has stripped her of the angst and self-doubt that paralyzes much of her audience. She opens her speeches by telling people she does not particularly care what they think of her, which permits her to bellow phrases like, “I AM THE LEGACY THAT WAS LEFT BEHIND!” and “I CAME THROUGH TO SHOW YOU THE WAY!” and somehow make them sound authoritative rather than bombastic.

“I’ve been termed as being ABNORMALLY ENTHUSIASTIC,” she is saying. “But I am full of passion BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU. I am standing here to TELL YOU that you CAN MAKE IT.”

It is a Monday morning, and Lonise Bias is sweating underneath the spotlights on the stage of a high school auditorium in a quiet corner of South Carolina. The assembly is mandatory. And it doesn’t matter that no one in this room knows who she is anymore, or who her sons were, or where they came from, or why her story means anything at all. It doesn’t matter that she was hired blind by a teacher who read her biography on the Web site of a speakers’ bureau and thought, “Well, that sounds kind of appropriate for a schoolwide assembly,” and it doesn’t matter that she momentarily forgets where she is, and refers to the students of Greenwood High School as the students of Greenville. It doesn’t matter, because it is hard not to listen when a woman with this kind of overbearing presence IS TALKING RIGHT AT YOU.

She has always possessed a robust set of vocal cords. When she was in elementary school, and the faculty needed a child to speak loudly enough for a large group to hear, they chose her. She grew up tall and imposing, with a natural-born gravity; after her speech at Greenwood, more than one student said Lonise Bias reminded them of their mothers. Perhaps, she always thought, she would teach someday, but she imagined it would be in Sunday school, not in a place like this, a public school several hundred miles from the suburban Maryland county where her life has played out like a soap opera.

It’s true, what she says about the graves. I went to see them not long after I heard Lonise Bias tell an incredible story to a group of South Carolina high school students: While witnessing the burial of her son Jay, she looked down and realized she was standing on the grave of her eldest son, Leonard. I had assumed it was a rhetorical flourish, a metaphor crafted for effect by a guest speaker who was getting paid to whack some sobriety into a room of spaced-out pubescents with self-image issues. But then I drove to the cemetery, in a Maryland suburb of Washington called Suitland, and I trudged up a hill, and I found the markers, a couple of rectangles blotched with age, stamped into the dirt and rocks and tufts of grass. And it is true — there is perhaps a foot of space between her boys. They are, quite literally, resting side by side.

Rob Tringali for ESPN.com
Len and Jay Bias, brothers who died less than five years apart, are literally now resting side by side.
The graves, tucked together like this, are a stark testimony to the complexity of Lonise Bias’ grief. It is impossible to comprehend the hellish depths she has plumbed, and it is equally difficult to see how she emerged with such palpable vigor, determination and self-assurance. This is what makes her come across as a bit strange, especially to a roomful of teenagers; instead of crushing her spirit, unspeakable family tragedy has stripped her of the angst and self-doubt that paralyzes much of her audience. She opens her speeches by telling people she does not particularly care what they think of her, which permits her to bellow phrases like, “I AM THE LEGACY THAT WAS LEFT BEHIND!” and “I CAME THROUGH TO SHOW YOU THE WAY!” and somehow make them sound authoritative rather than bombastic.

“I’ve been termed as being ABNORMALLY ENTHUSIASTIC,” she is saying. “But I am full of passion BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN YOU. I am standing here to TELL YOU that you CAN MAKE IT.”

It is a Monday morning, and Lonise Bias is sweating underneath the spotlights on the stage of a high school auditorium in a quiet corner of South Carolina. The assembly is mandatory. And it doesn’t matter that no one in this room knows who she is anymore, or who her sons were, or where they came from, or why her story means anything at all. It doesn’t matter that she was hired blind by a teacher who read her biography on the Web site of a speakers’ bureau and thought, “Well, that sounds kind of appropriate for a schoolwide assembly,” and it doesn’t matter that she momentarily forgets where she is, and refers to the students of Greenwood High School as the students of Greenville. It doesn’t matter, because it is hard not to listen when a woman with this kind of overbearing presence IS TALKING RIGHT AT YOU.

She has always possessed a robust set of vocal cords. When she was in elementary school, and the faculty needed a child to speak loudly enough for a large group to hear, they chose her. She grew up tall and imposing, with a natural-born gravity; after her speech at Greenwood, more than one student said Lonise Bias reminded them of their mothers. Perhaps, she always thought, she would teach someday, but she imagined it would be in Sunday school, not in a place like this, a public school several hundred miles from the suburban Maryland county where her life has played out like a soap opera.