It is the seven week, one day-mark since we lost Charlie Kirk, and it also happens to be the four-year mark since my dear friends, Alison and Tom Barklage, lost their son, Blake.
Blake died at age 17 from a heart attack on this day four years ago after contracting myocarditis. We talked about this with Alison and Tom when we did a piece on Blake in 2022 – they don’t know what caused the myocarditis exactly or what led to it. But they know it caused a heart attack in someone they adored too soon. As a result, they lost their son, Blake, and Alexis lost her big brother, Blake.
Here is the tribute we put together with Blake’s family and friends a year after he passed that I talked about on Thursday’s episode of The Megyn Kelly Show:
They are all still suffering, but I wanted to tell you the upshot as we are thinking about Erika Kirk and we are thinking about Erika and Charlie’s two babes. And that is: The Barklages were determined. That is one of the reasons we profiled them. Alison and Tom refused to give up. They refused to let their lives be ruined, to subject their daughter Lexi to a life of nonstop pain. They did turn their pain into purpose.
Since then, they have formed the Blake Gives Back foundation, which is helping do screenings at schools across the nation for cardiac irregularities. They have already saved innumerable lives of kids who had no idea that there was something wrong, but the EKGs that they’ve been offering found them. It is all thanks to this Blake Gives Back foundation that the Barklages are now running in honor of their son, powered by their son and his memory.
Tom also got the bereavement policy changed at Johnson & Johnson where he works. It had only allowed for five days off in the loss of an immediate family member and now it is 30 days off, which, of course, is what it should be. J&J was very good about it. They have been very supportive of the Barklages.
I am thinking about it because, when you are in the initial stages or two months in like Erika, most people can’t even function, never mind think about what’s next. I mean, when we ran that tribute for Blake, Tom and Alison hadn’t formed Blake Gives Back yet. They were still dealing with their grief. But four years later, they are on their feet.
We talked about in the in the piece and I can barely tell the story without getting choked up, but Blake had wanted to go to college at either Clemson or Georgia. He really liked Clemson, and he told his dad he thought he could get a scholarship to Clemson because he had really good grades. Tom told him that if he got a scholarship to Clemson, he could go, and they made a bet about whether Blake could do it.
And then Blake died on October 30, 2021. He was in the fall of his senior year of high school and had already sent his applications. Alison and Tom called all the schools to which he had applied to withdraw them because they didn’t want him to get the spot of some aspiring college attendee.
I guess Clemson didn’t get the message because they mailed the package to Blake, and it was a huge envelope. They knew immediately what it was. He had gotten into Clemson with the scholarship. Four years later, Blake’s sister Lexi, who was a couple years younger, is at Clemson now herself. Alison and Blake go down to visit with her. They go to the football games, and they celebrate.
There is a way forward for families who are suffering, and the Barklages are a great example of how you do it with dignity and grace. They are a great example of how you keep the loved one, their life, and their name fresh in people’s memories. And in that way, you keep them alive. I am so proud of them and how they have dealt with loss.
I think it is important to see how it is possible to deal with the pain of loss, especially as we go into the holiday season. A lot of people feel it. My own sister passed a year after I did that piece on Blake. Little did I know when I was doing a piece on my dear friend’s loss that I’d suffer a profound one of my own a year later. That stuff can always come up this time of year.
In any event, you can consider donating to Blake Gives Back. That is not why I raised this, but it is a great cause. We donate every year. They do those screenings for kids, and they also help kids who just had heart surgeries and transplants go to summer camp so they can have some time outdoors. There are a number of causes that they support that are wonderful.
But more than that, the lesson is always the same: Hug your children. Hug your spouse. Be kind to your spouse. Ask your spouse today what you can do for them. Ask your sibling what you can do for them. Call them up. See how they are. What’s that they say? Your parents go too soon; children come too late; but your siblings are there for the whole ride, or at least they should be.
That is my message for the day. I am sorry if that felt like a downer, but I hope you took it a different way. I hope it inspires you to lean into the love in your life.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,183 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.