A wrote a thing about my Mom and Baseball...

               Author’s (heh) note : I’m been struggling to find the correct words to express what I want to express here, and even after writing it and putting it up here, I still feel that it falls drastically short of what I want to say.

               Last night was fairly intense.  Around 11pm I was lying on the couch and the Astros were a single out away from winning the World Series.  I was buried under a pile of decorative pillows with my hands held up to my open mouth.  Nervous.  My heart racing at the same pace as that of a hummingbird.  Sweat starting to work its way out of the glands on my forehead.  I had earlier turned the Air Conditioning down to somewhere in the 60s because I was too ramped up and it was the only to cool down!  The last out came and I jumped out of the prone position and made a noise that I am entirely certain I cannot recreate.  Decorative pillows flew off of me and went in all directions.  After the initial elation, I stood there in front the TV and got a bit misty eyed and thought of my Mom.

               I’ve been an Astros fan for as long as I could be a fan of something.  I don’t recall which year but sometime in my early formative years I had an Astros themed birthday party, complete with an Astrodome shaped cake (carrot) that my Mom made for me.  I love the Astros, but not as much as other people I know, and not nearly as much as my Mom does.  My Mom is a super fan!

               Some of my earliest (and somewhat fondest memories of baseball) involve lying on the couch next to my Mom while she watched, or listened to Milo Hamilton’s broadcast on a very old blue spherical radio (the radio still works, if I had to guess its older than my Mom).  She listened to every game, and watched whenever it was possible (depends on if the game was on TV of course).  She has been a fan since before the name Astro was even a thing.  She’s loved the team since their inception in the city of Houston in 1962.  She would always come out of games with a positive attitude, even if the results were negative.  The hopeful Astros fan!

               My Mom is not doing so great these days.  Currently she is dealing with brain necrosis, it is an ugly thing and no one can agree on what will happen.  All we can garner is that it is a slow/medium/fast dash to the end, not exactly comforting in any capacity.  Part of this means that my Mom’s brain will slowly degenerate and she will begin to show signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s.  It has already started to begin.  Last night though while texting with my Dad he was telling me about my Mom watching the game and how she was fully aware and cognizant of everything that was happening and how after the Astros won the game she was happy, and cheering, and clapping (and if I had to guess probably crying a little as well).  My Dad said that he had not really seen her like this in a while.  I don’t tell any of this to depress, or anything along those lines.  I write these things because sometimes I have difficulties verbalizing my feelings, and I want to make sure that I say the things that need to be said.

               With all that in mind, Thank You Houston Astros for giving my Mom the ability to see something that she has been hoping and wishing for since she was a 5 year old girl.