Carl Diggs looked into 3-year-old Auntavia
Atkins' eyes, open for the last time. Alone in a Cleveland hospital
room with his family crying outside, Diggs held his niece in his
arms as the life slowly drained from her body.

"I could just hear her gasping," Diggs said. "I just held my
niece until her last breath. To me, that's one of the hardest
things I've ever had to do in my life. I never thought I'd be in
that situation."

Diggs was in that situation because Auntavia's mother and Diggs'
sister, Angel Diggs, couldn't handle being in the room when the
doctors pulled the plug on her daughter. Neither could Diggs'
brother, Grover Diggs.

"We asked Carl, 'Are you going to be able to do this?' " Grover
said. "Carl said 'yeah.'

"He was pretty much the heart and soul of the family that day.
Having him there made it a lot easier. A lot of people couldn't do
that."

"It was just hard to hold my niece ... I never thought I'd see
any of (my nieces and nephews) go before I did," Carl said. "I held
her in my arms and just prayed. I just wanted to be strong for my
sister."

Everyone's always counted on Diggs, even when it would have been
easy for him to be weak.

Diggs, 22, became a father at the age of 17. And in the past
year and a half, he's had to overcome being shot in the back of his
left leg, breaking his right leg and now losing Auntavia.

Diggs' friends, family and teammates collectively wonder, "How
does he do it?"

According to Diggs, there's no choice but to be strong.
Otherwise, he "probably would have given up everything."

Family ties

Angel Diggs, 29, was just starting to get her life together when
Auntavia died. For the past year, Angel's three children had been
living in a court-approved foster home, but Diggs' mother, Bernita
Diggs, said Angel was on her way to getting her kids back in the
near future.

Angel's children were put into the hands of 40-year-old Ethel
Wilbert-Bethea of Cortland, Ohio. The Diggs family is accusing
Wilbert-Bethea of murdering Auntavia.

"The things that were done to her caused her death," Bernita
said.

A representative from the Warren, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas
said the State of Ohio is charging Wilbert-Bethea with four counts
of endangering children, one count of felonious assault and one
count of murder. Wilbert-Bethea is being held in the county jail on
$1 million bond. The pre-trial hearing is set for Nov. 4.

Diggs first heard about Auntavia's serious condition after the
Central Michigan game Aug. 30. He dropped football and all his
other responsibilities in Ann Arbor and headed straight for his
home in Warren.

"He had to go down and keep his family together," said Courtney
Morgan, a Michigan offensive tackle and Diggs' roommate. "He shed a
tear, but crying wasn't really going to solve the problem. He had
to be the strong one."

Said Bernita, Carl's mother: "After the first game, I had to
tell him about his niece ... she would never be right and would
always be in a vegetable state. He was determined to come back
before they pulled the plug. At the funeral, I was a wreck, and he
held up for me."

Diggs would argue that Bernita has been holding up for him since
day one. Raising her kids in the Warren projects, Bernita had to
rule with an iron fist and instill strong family values in her
kids.

"I did not play. I did not play," Bernita said. "It's hard to
raise children these days, but it's exceptionally hard to raise a
young black man. But they always had a job, and I always kept them
involved in something."

The youngest of four siblings, Diggs has filled more of an
older-brother role for his family. Everyone in the family can't
help but be proud of Diggs and respect what he's accomplished,
making a name for himself outside of Warren.

"His nieces and nephews really look up to him; he's at Michigan
playing football," said Morgan, who considers himself a part of the
Diggs family. "Not a lot of people where he comes from get a chance
to go to college and get his degree. He's the youngest sibling, but
he kind of has to carry the burden of being one of the oldest. He
has the oldest-sibling-type responsibilities."

Grover says losing Auntavia has made Carl even more mature than
he was before - mature, but not immune to the pain the rest of the
family is feeling.

"Still to this day right now, it's hard for me to deal with,"
Diggs said. "Her name pops up in my mind at weird times, and I just
think about everything that went on. I get on my knees and just
pray to God."

A different kind of responsibility