March

Live long enough, and every month comes with its own set of memories, even March. My wedding anniversary is Wednesday. How long have I been married to the lovely Gina Lollobrigida, as I once called my wife during a function at Clare’s grade school (I was board president at the time)? So long that multiple members of the bridal party are no longer on this Earth. But I still thank the heavens for getting and being married to the same person all these decades. Just as I’m thankful for my daughter’s athletic career, rooted as it was in March. This week is also the opening of the high school softball season, and how I remember March 20, 2008, the opening day of Clare’s sophomore season. I looked like the Michelin Man dressed in layers, and Clare went 2-for-three against an OPRF pitcher bound for D-1. Ten years ago this time we were in Florida for Clare’s junior year at Elmhurst. Minutes after her first home run of the season, she found out her cousin died, and back to Chicago we went for the funeral. That’s a sad memory, to be balanced by one from April of the same year, when my child hit a walk-off two-run homer to beat Milliken. Some things you don’t forget.