Ethan’s Story

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Ethan's Story

Ethan Hayden Falkowitz was born on March 5, 2009 in New York City. The below was only supposed to be a tiny portion of the accolades that Ethan would have achieved on his own. Whatever we add during our lifetimes will, in no way, come close to how special Ethan has been to this world in his short 14 years.

Not only did Ethan make the starting lineup of the Roslyn High School Varsity Tennis Team as an eighth grader, he was also on his way to consideration for valedictorian in four years. Those are the words of his teachers and coaches. At an early age, Ethan understood the concept of earning results through hard work and realized that reaching one’s potential required focus and determination and that it would not be given to you just because you want it.

Athletically, academically, personally, socially, and morally, Ethan excelled. His beliefs were simple and of the highest regard. Encouraging others to believe in themselves, sharing what he learned, being a role model to his younger brother and sister (and his parents, too), proactively seeking to help those around him (whether he knew them or not), smiling and making others smile, are only a few of the tremendous qualities that Ethan possessed. Generations of families will go their whole lives never understanding the concept of unselfish happiness the way Ethan did, and the way Ethan exemplified, in his 14 years.

We’ve come to understand a few facts of life. Life is not fair. Ethan was an angel on earth. And the universe doesn’t take into consideration the type of person you are before deciding when your time may be up. Because if it did, Ethan would be out living all of us.
Yes, he won his last tennis tournament before tryouts. He also won his last high school doubles tennis match, under the lights. He was also asked to present his math research honors paper at Hofstra University; it conflicted with a Varsity tennis match, so he couldn’t make it. He accumulated an average of greater than 97 through all of eighth grade, while taking multiple high school classes. He was also recommended for every honors class for high school.

As his parents, we thought it might be too much to take all honors classes as a freshman in high school, with all of the tennis that he was planning to play and all of the extracurricular activities he was interested in. But he wouldn’t hear it. He had his eyes set on going to Cornell, like his mother, and nothing would stop him from achieving that goal. But to know Ethan is to know that he was not willing to step on your back to get ahead of you. Rather, he preferred to put the whole world on his shoulders to ensure that, as a team, everyone can flourish. After hearing countless stories, dozens and dozens of them, shared by both familiar and unfamiliar faces, we come to reaffirm this character trait Ethan possessed in the weeks following this unbearable tragedy.
Someone’s horrific decision to get behind the wheel has made this world a worse place to live. And this is something that we have to come to terms with for the rest of our lives.

Ethan loved to laugh. And he loved to entertain. There isn’t a room he didn’t light up. There wasn’t a person that he wouldn’t communicate with. There wasn’t a “want” that he wouldn’t excel in. At 14 years old, he started to become our role model. As his parents, there were fewer and fewer things that we felt like we could teach him that he didn’t already know. We created the Ethan Falkowitz foundation as a way to give back, the way Ethan did and would.

At 14 years old, Ethan was already volunteering to help underprivileged children learn tennis. He was already helping his friends in school on subjects that were challenging them. He was already putting smiles on faces, even if they didn’t know they needed it. He already knew the power of asking questions rather than assuming answers. Ethan just got it.
It is now our life’s mission to teach the world the way Ethan would have. And whatever we do, we know he would have done more.

Ethan was filled with love, and it was important that he let those around him know how much he loved them. About seven months before Ethan passed away, a dad of one of Ethan’s friends died of a heart attack. The impact it had on Ethan was clear. He would not go to sleep or leave the house without first saying and hearing, “I love you” from us, his Mom and Dad. It didn’t matter the time. It didn’t matter the day. It gave him comfort to hear that his parents loved him. It also gave him comfort to reassure his parents that he loved them. The love that Ethan shared was incomparable. The love that those who knew Ethan was real and everlasting.
Something exceptional about Ethan was his tremendous inner confidence. He didn’t brag or boast in any way. But his inner confidence gave him a unique ability to bring happiness to others, to selflessly love others, to encourage them to be their best selves. He would raise people up, compliment them, call them by their first names and know things about them and their families.

He made people feel like their lives mattered, like they mattered, whether through his playful gestures of giving them nicknames, remembering them from elementary school and saying “Hi” in the hallways or on the streets, or being the first to start a congratulatory cheer for someone. He found reasons to help, he found reasons to celebrate, he found reasons to encourage…all with an ease and grace, and without the need for credit, that made him so remarkable.
As we said in a toast Gary made on his 13th birthday, Ethan was an extraordinary man who we knew would do extraordinary things. Painfully, heart wrenchingly painfully, we, as his parents, are tasked to do them for him.

Ethan Falkowitz Foundation

Ethan Falkowitz Foundation N/a
Address
Roslyn,

New York, US 11576
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