Even among legendary celebrity deaths in 2016 (an appallingly long list), Muhammad Ali stands alone in the impact his life had on society around him. Ali changed the world even for people who didn’t want it to be changed, and his position as an individual athlete (at the height of his sport’s popularity) with a political conscience (in one of the most politically significant decades of American history) meant his presence was felt like none other’s. That’s why the range of people publicly reacting to Ali’s passing has been so wide, though none of them had a closer connection to the man than his daughter, and champion boxer in her own right, Laila Ali.
Speaking with TODAY, Ali spoke frankly of her father’s long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, and how the illness claimed his life long before he drew his final breath.
“I know that one of the things [my father] was afraid of was death, and he definitely wouldn’t want to just move on. But we’re not in control — obviously God’s in control, and everything pretty much is written. And, you know, it was time for him to go, and I know he’s in a better place now…”
One of the most difficult things about the aging process is reconciling our memories of someone at their prime, at the time when they burned themselves into our brains, with the ravages of time. No one embodied that heartbreaking tension like Ali, whose life force was felt across the world, but whose body was broken by the sport which gave him his platform. Ali’s passing means that the memories are once again the strong, enduring image the public has of him, a comforting thought to all of us, including his daughter Laila.
