Small stones and pebbles line the base of the grayish black headstone at Raleigh’s Oakwood Cemetery, the one that says “Valvano.”
It’s an old custom, leaving stones, evidence that a visitor has come, that they still care, still remember and cherish.
It has been 25 years since Jim Valvano died, succumbing to cancer on April 28, 1993 and buried two days later in historic Oakwood. He was 47, with seemingly so much still to give, and those attending the funeral services on April 30 included North Carolina coach Dean Smith and many of his former ACC peers.