Rally Mom

The Kansas City Royals baseball team won the World Series last night. It was their first World Series win since 1985. Thirty years without a championship. Almost thirty years without even being good enough to qualify for the post season playoffs. The team had its ups and downs during the 1990s and then spent much of the first part of this century in last place, losing game after game every season. Things began turning around a few years ago when, with some new leadership and and a group of talented young players, they began to win. Last night they won it all.

My daughter Abigail has been a big fan of the team since she was a small girl. Her closets were always filled with Royals ball caps, tee shirts and sweat shirts, and we had a kitchen cabinet filled with Kansas City Royals stadium cups she and I brought back from the games we attended. She's a grown woman now, married and living in the Seattle area, but her love of the Kansas City Royals has never wavered. When the Royals play the Seattle Mariners Abby is always there in person, cheering for them as loudly as ever.

Many of you know my wife Mona was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease nine years ago. She's in a nursing home now and while it's difficult for her to communicate she always lets us know she loves us and she's always a source of inspiration. Last month as the Royals began their march to the championship I thought Abby might like to have a photo of her mom supporting her favorite team. During a visit to the nursing home I took off my Royals cap, placed it on her, and asked her to give me her best smile. It's the photo you see above.

Late last night, after the final out of the World Series, I texted Abby my congratulations and she sent me a photo of herself dressed in the uniform jersey of Lorenzo Cain, her favorite player. Her eyes were red with tears and she told me how important this photo of her mom had been to her. During the playoffs when the Royals reached a critical point in a game and needed a boost Abby would open her phone and pull up the photo of her mom wearing the Royals ball cap. She even gave this special photo a name.

She called it Rally Mom.

In the games of this championship series the Kansas City Royals scored 40 runs in the 8th inning or later. The other nine teams in the tournament combined scored 26. For those of you who aren't baseball fans that's very good. Almost impossibly good. It was comeback after comeback as they pulled games out of the fire at the last minute. The Royals never quit and the significance wasn't lost on Abby. "Dad," she told me last night, "Rally Mom got us there."

Alzheimer's disease is many horrible things but most of all it's a thief. It's stolen years from me together with the woman I love and it's stolen Mona's time watching her grandchildren grow up. However, there are still important things it can't steal. It can't steal the memories we have or the love that's still in her eyes or her ability to encourage and inspire us. My family and I have faced some impossible situations during the past nine years. There's been grief and heartache, disappointment and discouragement. But I've learned so much from my wife about patience and faith, about taking life one moment, one day, one week at a time. One pitch, one swing of the bat, one inning at a time. You keep going. You keep believing. And you don't quit.

Rally Mom wouldn't have it any other way.