One good man.

A man driving along with his pregnant wife gets into an accident through no fault of his. However he keeps his head together and his final act of love for her is to swerve the car to avoid a head on collision thus taking the max impact on his side. He dies while protecting his pregnant wife from harm. I might have read lots of articles about such incidents without stopping to think too much about them so why do I feel differently now? Do I know the man? No. Do I know his wife? No. Yet I feel terrible.... why?

I think the fact that he was a lead designer at a PC Game creation company strikes a chord in me at some level. There is more to gaming than most people realize. It inspires, motivates, serves as a muse and in this case brings people together in hard times. Brian's heroic act is the very epicenter of every PC game and his demise feels like losing someone close to me.... and people say games inspire violence. That is true to some degree but there is a +ve aspect as well that no one cares to highlight. Erin has the support of the entire gaming community to help her get through this.

Here is a letter from her:

Hello.

My name is Erin Wood, and I wanted to send a request to please pass along my most sincere and heartfelt thanks to the gaming community for the overwhelming support provided to me in the past two weeks. I asked coworkers of Brian how I might best send my thanks, and they recommended sending them to Kotaku - hence this email. Any way you can help share this with the community would be much appreciated.

Brian always told me about how close-knit and wonderful the video game community was, but I had no idea until this tragedy just how special a group it really is. From all the articles and comments, to the emails and donations, I am simply stunned and so touched by the love, kindness, and generosity shown to me and my family. As everyone knows, the last 10 days have been the most difficult, dark days of my life. But this journey has been eased tremendously by the thoughts, prayers, and well wishes received from friends, family, and strangers living all over the world. It is so meaningful for me to hear about how his work and enthusiasm for the industry has touched others. Brian was completely and utterly devoted to the game industry, and was pretty much living his dream every day. He woke up every morning excited to be working in such a creative, demanding field. It was such a joy to be married to someone who was absolutely passionate about his professional life.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the compassion and support. It is so appreciated, and has been a light to me in this impossible situation.

Warm wishes,
Erin

Please help out here: http://www.brianwoodmemorialtrust.com/