Interviews, Songs, & Insights

Dr. Korbon, I have been doing this for five years, your show got some of the best reaction I’ve ever gotten. It touched a lot of people, thanks for coming on and sharing Brian’s story.

Best regards,
Jim Harold
Host Paranormal Podcast
#5 on iTunes/Science with over 180,000 downloads monthly

Dr. Korbon … When I heard your story of Brian on StoryCorps several years ago I wept. I was a young father and was first struck by two parents so intimately sharing with the world your loss. Then, to hear the story of Brian, calmly predicting his own future and teaching you and the world in the meantime. The Steel Wheels were just getting started at that time and we were playing songs about John Henry and other legends of Americana with superhuman qualities. I thought about the story of your son in the same way and I believed there should be a song. It wasn’t hard to write because the story told itself. I decided to use a slightly different name for … “artistic” reasons. Billy sounds more like an “old-timey” name to me than Brian and it’s an easier name to sing.

Your friend,
Trent Wagler

Dr. Korbon, I first heard Brian’s story on NPR’s StoryCorps and then read your book, which touched my heart. I was interested to learn that many children have premonitions of their deaths, often drawing pictures and foretelling it. It seems that Brian prepared his family for life after his passing in the most selfless act I can imagine. Brian’s story inspired me to write the song The Children Know in hope that it can spread his wonderful legacy, and give peace to anyone who has lost a child.

Blessings,
Douglas Cogan

About the Book

I wrote this book for two reasons. The first was to help me understand the miraculous chain of events that happened when my nine-year-old son, Brian, died. In honor of his memory, I have made the account as accurate as I could (changing some people’s names to protect their privacy). Part I tells Brian’s story and, when I finished it, I thought I was done. But the mysteries kept happening, and I kept trying to understand, so I kept writing. Part II tells the story of what happened afterward: how I found gifted teachers and had so many more amazing experiences that I could no longer believe anything was impossible. As a result, the magic I thought I had lost in my childhood returned to me—one of the many gifts that flowed from the emptiness that Brian left in my heart.

Sometimes people enter our lives and change us forever. When, through their deaths, they bring us closer to God, we call them martyrs. For me, Brian was such a person. Before he died, I was a clever person adrift in a seemingly meaningless and tragic world. But Brian changed all that, and I think it might be helpful for others to know about him and what he taught me. This was my other reason for writing this book. So, for anyone who wants to know how grieving the death of a beautiful and gifted child can become a journey of wonder and hope, I offer our story.

Beyond Reason - Lessons from the Loss of a Gifted Child by Gregg Korbon, MD

About the Author

Gregg Korbon enlisted in the army after high school and served as an artillery officer during the Vietnam era. He then attended Duke University and Duke University School of Medicine, specializing in anesthesiology and pain management. Dr. Korbon taught at Duke and the University of Virginia medical schools, entered private practice, and directed an outpatient surgery center. He has authored books and research articles and developed new techniques that are widely used in his field.

Dr. Korbon has also had a long-standing interest in outdoor education and is a senior facilitator at the University of Virginia’s Poplar Ridge challenge course. While an undergraduate at Duke, he created a weeklong adventure course for incoming freshmen, now called Project W.I.L.D. (Wilderness Initiative Learning at Duke), which became a model for many university outdoor programs. He holds a black belt in tae kwon do, a brown belt in judo, and has logged over forty thousand miles as a bicycle commuter. Dr. Korbon has known challenge and pain, but it was only through the death of his son that he found their common source. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia with his wife and children.