A r t i c l e s :
Reflections of a big brother
by Bret "Hitman" Hart -- The Calgary Sun
I just can't believe it.
My brother Owen has been taken away from me.
He was such a wonderful human being and I will miss him so much.
I've tried and tried to sum up into words what he meant to me. What he meant to all of us who loved him.
It seems everyone knows by now what a great husband, father, son and brother he was.
He was, without a doubt, the finest family man that I ever knew.
His life was centred around his wife, Martha, his one and only childhood sweetheart, and his two beautiful children, Oje and Athena.
So many times, I remember he sprinted from the door of the plane, his two carry-on bags in each hand, at a full run, worn out and weary, just to clear customs, through the sliding doors, to their outstretched arms.
A man with no vices. None.
His only obsession, his family. Always his family.
And oh, how he loved them all!
I don't believe anyone knew Owen as well as me, except Martha.
I recall, so often, in airports, hotel rooms, dressing rooms, long drives on endless highways, his only dream was to come home to his wife and his two children.
He almost made it, only days before moving into their dream home.
He worked so hard for that dream. It's all so unfair, an exhausting argument with God.
A long and sad meditation on fate and purpose and love.
I'm so sorry, Martha. You and he deserved so much to have all your dreams come true.
As your brother, if you can hear me, and I know you can, you would be so very proud of her. I understand, even more so than before, why you fell in love with this girl and why your loved her so much.
As your brother, I promise to watch over Athena and Oje. To be there for them.
To try my best to make up for your absence. To tell them about you and to never let them wonder what you were like. To help Martha forever and to insure what you wanted the most: that Oje and Athena are raised with respect and love and that they'll be guided by your spirit to have integrity and conscience. That they will make you proud.
Martha wouldn't have it any other way.
Neither will I.
My mother and father, I know what he meant to you, to all of us Harts, and I hope, in our sadness, we can find some way to overcome this tragedy and move on again.
The Harts are loved and admired for our strength.
This will be a true test.
We all have so many wonderful and beautiful thoughts and memories of Owen, I wouldn't know where to start. I can't.
I've concluded that we can only hold on to all those memories and like our lost brother, Dean, we will laugh and smile and talk endlessly of how you made this world a better place.
Owen, you were the funniest person I ever knew. I thank you for that.
I will smile to myself forever at all the funny things you did.
A prankster?
Nobody but all of us who knew you will ever understand how hilarious it was to be around you.
Prank me anytime, Owen, I'll be waiting for your call.
You were a great man who never, ever lost his heart of a child.
I will hold dear my memories of all the places, distant lands and people we saw together.
The sunset in Guam. The breathtaking beauty of Cape Town, South Africa. Our hell ride to the Taj Mahal in India. The serenity and beauty of the Hong Kong skyline. The harsh realities of Hiroshima and Auschwitz, where we paid our silent respect, and maybe more importantly our trip to Jerusalem, the ceaseless wonder.
For, like Jesus, nailed to the cross, to a grid of paradoxes, you balanced yourself between the torment of not knowing your mission and the joy you took in carrying it out.
Owen, you have all the answers now. I remember always being your protector. Looking out for you.
I feel my heartache and my eyes begin to sting when I think, why wasn't I there to protect you in the Kemper Arena in Kansas City last Sunday.
To question if this was really necessary. Shame on you, Vince McMahon.
Owen, I loved wrestling with you.
You were a great wrestler from start to finish and millions of your fans all around the world will never let that be forgotten.
Maybe it's not important, almost kind of meaningless, but I know you were proud of your accomplishments, as I was, and you were one of the greatest athletes to ever set foot in a wrestling ring.
Everyone has a song in their heart.
My families have always been professional wrestling.
The hardest aspect of it was always the neverending loneliness.
In reflection of that, both you and I understood from the very start that we were singing a very sad song.
But neither of us, even at this dark hour, are ashamed at having sung that song.
For, no matter what anyone ever thinks, Owen, yours will always be the most beautiful song I've ever heard.
I'm lonely for you already.
The world loved you very much and we will all miss you for a very long time.
Your loving brother,
Bret
Offical Obituary
HART - Owen James Hart, beloved husband of Martha Hart, and loving dad of Oje and Athena, of Calgary, passed away tragically in Kansas City, Missouri on Sunday, May 23, 1999 at the age of 34 years. Owen was born in Calgary, on May 7, 1965. He attended Ernest Manning High School where he met his future wife, Martha and proceeded on to the University of Calgary, where he attended three years on his amateur wrestling scholarship before his professional debut, May 1986. Owen traveled throughout the world, wrestling in varios countries, such as Japan, Germany, England and Mexico, before joining the WWF as the "Blue Blazer". Owen married his high school sweetheart, Martha on July 1, 1989, and left the WWF to travel together for a two-year period, before returning to the WWF as Owen Hart, where he became a world-renowned superstar of the World Wrestling Federation. Owen and Martha were blessed with two beautiful children, their son Oje Edward, born March 5, 1992 and further blessed with their daughter Athena Christie, born on September 23, 1995. Besides his loving wife and children, Owen is survived by his parents, Stu and Helen Hart; brothers and sisters, Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Ellie, Georgia, Bret, Allison, Ross and Diana; as well as nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and other relatives. He was predeceased by his brother Dean and nephew Mattew. Martha wishes to thank all family, friends, neighbors and fans world wide, for their ongoing support and comfort in thei time of great sorrow. A Private Family Service will be held at McINNIS & HOLLOWAY'S "Park Memorial Chapel" on Monday, May 31, 1999 at 11:00 a.m. Everyone is welcome to gather around the Funeral Home to pay tribute to Owen, but services inside the Chapel are private. Graveside Service to follow at Queen's Park Cemetery. If friends so desire, memorial tributes may be made directly to the Alberta Children's Hospital, 1820 Richmond Road S.W., Calgary Alberta T2T 5C7, as it is a charity in which Owen supported. In living memory of Owen Hart, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, "Park Memorial Chapel", 5008 ELBOW DRIVE S.W., CALGARY. Telephone: 403-243-8200
Sharing tears for Owen
Wrestling stars and fans alike grappled with tears and sorrow yesterday as a Calgary sports hero was laid to rest.
Initial applause from a crowd excited over the presence of such superstars as Hulk Hogan and The Rock at the funeral soon gave way to sobbing, as the grieving widow of Owen Hart paid tribute to her husband, killed in the ring last week.
"Before I start today, I would just like to say that I loved him, I loved him, I loved him, and I miss him," said Martha Hart, Owen's high school sweetheart, and wife of 10 years.
"He was my whole world -- I don't know how to say goodbye.
"I don't know how to let go."
Martha's tear-choked words filled the McInnis & Holloway Chapel on Elbow Dr. and 50 Ave. S.W., where 300 mourners listened, including Hart's family and such dignitaries as Premier Ralph Klein, Mayor Al Duerr and former Flame Lanny McDonald.
Outside, loudspeakers carried Martha's strained voice to a muted crowd of more than 1,000, bringing even teenage male wrestling fans to tears.
Martha refused to lay direct blame for death of her husband, killed May 23 when a high-wire harness broke, fatally dropping him nine storeys into a wrestling ring in Kansas City.
Instead, the widow promised that those responsible would eventually answer for the death of the 34-year-old Hart.
"I'm a very forgiving person and I'm not bitter or angry, but there will be a day of reckoning," she sobbed.
"This is my final promise to Owen, and I won't let him down."
World Wrestling Federation owner Vince McMahon, blamed by many for the kind of spectacle that claimed Owen, sat silently in the chapel's back row, surrounded by the 30 or-so professional wrestlers he'd flown in for the funeral.
Many of those in the crowd outside had come to see wrestling stars including the Undertaker and Mankind, who pulled up in three white buses marked with banners with slogans like "Owen we love you and will always remember you."
Nearly every wrestler wore a black arm band reading "Owen."
Hart's equally-famous brother, Bret, brought smiles to sombre faces with stories of their fighting days.
"Owen was absolutely the best husband and father that I ever saw, and I think it's fitting that he's always remembered for that," said Bret.
"But he was also a level-headed and wholesome guy who couldn't avoid a prank," added The Hitman, sharing tales of joke phone calls and Owen's childhood wrestling matches between the family cat and his stuffed toy monkey.
"They were really truly entertaining matches -- he'd whack the cat and then you knew it was game time."
Laughter followed both outside the chapel and inside, where the entire Hart clan sat before Owen's open casket, which was surrounded by a forest of flowers.
Throughout the ceremony, Owen's son, Oje, and daughter, Athena, sat bravely with their mother in the front row.
The service ended with a video tribute to Owen's life, in which family footage dominated, and wrestling shots were restricted to the odd picture of Hart in his uniform.
Following the ceremony, which also featured live music by Owen's favourite country singer Collin Raye, Hart's grim-faced parents, Stu and Helen, led the family back to waiting limousines.
A white hearse led the way, followed by 13 limousines, 3 buses and 72 other vehicles, blocking traffic on Deerfoot Tr. as the procession made it's way to a private burial at Queen's Park Cemetery.
Friends and wrestlers later gathered at the Hart family home in southwest Calgary.
Despite the risks of the profession, the death of Owen Hart came as a terrible shock to Winnipeggers with ties to the World Wrestling Federation.
Don Callis, a former WWF manager and commentator who went under the stage name The Jackal, said he heard the news from a friend calling about Star Wars tickets.
At first he was skeptical.
"With wrestling you're automatically in disbelief, but when I heard how it went down I knew it was for real," Callis said last night.
"You just don't think something like this could happen."
Local WWF promoter Bob Holliday said he was "sick" when he heard his friend had died after falling 18 metres into the ring during a show in Kansas City, Mo.
Holliday described Hart as a "perfect gentleman" who had a penchant for practical jokes.
"Owen was the king of the ribbers. He pulled jokes on everybody in the WWF including me," Holliday said.
One time he had the Winnipeg-based promoter chasing a fictitious reporter from "Prairie Home Living Magazine" who was supposedly hassling wrestlers about being unco-operative.
He even called Holliday on the phone, disguising his voice and impersonating the make-believe troublemaker.
"Everybody was in on it, and he had me going for two days in St. Albert and Saskatoon."
Another time he filled WWF president Vince McMahon's temporary office in the San Diego Arena with goats and pigs borrowed from the Godwin Family.
And just last month after Wrestlemania in Meadowlands, N.J., Holliday watched as Hart slid the bolt on a door and locked WWF's computer techs into a room.
Just for the fun of it.
But Hart was more than just a practical joker.
"He didn't drink. He didn't smoke. He was devoted to his wife and kids," Holliday said.
After retirement, Hart planned to get his phys-ed degree and go into teaching. He was going to assess his future in three years when his WWF contract expired.
"He was the sweetest guy you'd ever meet," said Callis. "He was one of my very favourite people."
Hulk Hogan joins Stu and Helen Hart's son-in-laws Jim Neidhart and Davey Boy Smith at the Hart house following Owen Hart's funeral, May 31 1999 -- (Photo by Dave Chidley, Calgary Sun).