RIP Marvin Driver Jr.

[Jimx29]

Came across this on FB:

Donald Driver

Wednesday night I lost the most amazing, passionate, loving, and caring father in the world. RIP Marvin Driver Jr. Dad, you will be missed. Thank you for the love, the prayers and support.

[smuggler]

Well, that sucks. Anyone know how he died?

[pbmax]

I remember stories about Driver growing up with his brother and mother and at one time being homeless. Was his father around then or did they reconnect later?

[Joemailman]

I remember stories about Driver growing up with his brother and mother and at one time being homeless. Was his father around then or did they reconnect later?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playof...ory?id=6069357

Donald was 14 at the time. Life wasn't easy. His parents divorced when he was young. His dad, Marvin Jr., spent time in prison. And his mom, Faye Gray, had struggled to support her five children. A collection agency had taken most of the family's possessions, leaving them homeless. They slept in hotel rooms, U-Haul trailers and on the worst nights, the streets.

Even then, though, Faye would remind her children to never give up on their dreams. "And I promised them," she said, "that everything we were going through together would someday make us stronger."

Donald and his brother tried to help out, but not the way their mother wanted. When she went to work at night, they dabbled in dealing drugs and stealing cars. They were heading down a path that had two destinations: jail or a morgue. After Marvin Jr. was released from prison, he suggested that Donald and Marvin III move in with his parents, so Faye could focus on digging out of debt. It was the right decision. But also the hardest one to make.

"There's no greater love than a mother who loves her children so much that she lets them go because that's what's best for them," Marvin III said. "That's one of the reasons she's our role model. She did everything she could to better our lives."