Sometimes, the memory comes to him while he's doing the most mundane, routine things.
Artie Burns was 11 when it happened, a precocious young athlete hoping to do well at one of his track meets despite the fact he felt feverish and nauseous.
He wasn't sure if his weakened body could get over those hurdles, until his mother – a former track standout at Miami's Northwestern High – pulled Burns aside and looked into his nervous eyes.
"Get it together and get on that track," Dana Smith told her young son that day. "You can go out there.