JJ McLaughlin Opens Up About Dealing With Life’s Unforeseen Tragedies

(Editor’s Note: JJ is a pitcher for Nassau Community College. He was forced to deal with the tragic loss of both his mother and father just over one year apart)

by JJ McLaughlin

Baseball has been my therapy through it all. I’ve been playing since I was little and I don’t know if I would be here without it being a major part of my life. I have gone through so much within such a short period of time and at such a young age, many people question how I am still in school and how I am even still playing baseball.

I graduated high school in 2011 and went onto play at Monroe College for my freshman year. When I left for school everything was fine, but before I knew it, my whole world started to fall apart.

My dad was diagnosed with Melanoma cancer in the fall of 2012. That was when I knew my life would never be the same. I had to leave Monroe to help take care of both my parents because news came about my mom getting sick and she ultimately had to leave work. My mom had cirrhosis of the liver. Just when I thought things were bad, they kept getting worse.

About two years went by where I was not enrolled in school until I went to Nassau Community College and made the baseball team in the fall of 2014. I had the mindset that I was finally going to get back into baseball and school but had to leave in the spring because of my mom’s condition worsening. I woke up one morning to my Grandma waking me up crying and telling me that we needed to go to the hospital but she wouldn’t tell me why or what was going on. When we got to the hospital, my dad was told by the doctors that it was time to say goodbye to her. I never imagined that at 21 that I would witness my mom with zero life in her and on her last string of life. As a family, we prayed with the Priest and hoped that our prayers would get answered. She ended up undergoing surgery to help her live. After this surgery she was transferred to ICU for a week to wait until being transferred to Mount Saini where we waited for a match on a liver.
Through all of this with my mom, my dad was slowly getting worse. He was right by her side every day with tubes from chemo in his body regardless of how he was feeling. We waited around two weeks before we luckily found a match for a new liver. I felt like things were turning around. She started doing better and both of my parents told me they wanted me back in school and back on the field playing the sport I love.

In the fall of 2015, I enrolled in school at Mount Saint Vincent’s but wasn’t there for long. A week into school I got a phone call from my mom saying that my dad didn’t have much time left and that he was in the ER. She thought I needed to come home. A few days went by where I stayed by his side because I knew he didn’t have much time left. He passed on September 11th, 2015. At that time I felt like my life hit rock bottom. My dad was everything to me and I didn’t know what I was going to do without him.

I enrolled back into classes at NCC for the spring of 2016 and thought I was finally going to get to play this season, but my mom’s health wasn’t the best. I was the only one able to help her, and going to school while helping her was not an option. During this time, my mom was looking to sell the house in New York and wanted to move to Florida with my grandpa as soon as she could.
I ended up contacting Professionals in Garden City in the summer of 2016 to start getting ready to get back into training for baseball. I started working and training with my teammates and began to look forward to getting back into school and finally, after so many years, getting to get on a mound and actually pitch in games. While training at Professionals I met and made great connections with many people such as Alex Katz and Jose Reyes. Alex helped me a lot with bettering myself pitching wise. I felt like this season was going to be a good one and I could make my dad proud.
My mom closed on the house in November and moved down to Florida which really upset me because she was my rock through everything. I would call her every day to talk and see how she was doing. In the fall semester of 2016 I did very well in all of my classes and got my GPA up to where I wanted it. Over the winter break I would train every single day with my teammates at Professionals to get myself better for the upcoming season.

It was this past February that everything took a turn for the worse once again. One day after practice I called my mom like I did every day, but that day was different–she didn’t answer.

I knew this was not like her, but wasn’t sure if she was just busy, so I figured she would give me a call back during the day. The next day I had no call from her so I tried calling her again and got no answer. At that point I knew something was wrong. I contacted different family members to see if anyone had heard from her recently and everyone said no. That’s when the panic set in. I tried contacting the police in Florida but ended up getting nowhere with them. Luckily I got in contact with the real estate agent who sold my mom the house down in Florida. She was the only one who was helping and seemed to care. She went to the house and found an open door where she found my mom in her bed non-responsive and my dog shaking next to her bed. I knew at this point that she was gone. We were told that she passed in her sleep a few days before we found her. The feelings I had when my dad passed all came back. I didn’t know what to do with myself let alone if I wanted to continue at school and baseball.

If it wasn’t for my coaches, teammates, and close family and friends standing by me every step of the way I definitely would not be where I am currently. My coaches and teammates turned into my family and were the extra support system I needed and still are to this day.

Even with all of this negativity in my life, the one thing I have always strived to do is play baseball. It is the one thing where, when I am pitching, everything seems to slowly fade away. I’ve learned through all of this that even when you feel like you’re at your rock bottom, you need to keep fighting and try your best to be as strong as possible. Baseball was, and is, my outlet. Even when times are hard I know I can play and make my parents proud because all they wanted me to do was play baseball and do well in school. After watching what my parents went through, I know I can make it through any pain, any hardship, anything. This year is my year, and I’m dedicating it to them.