The Little Things

My mother-in-law is 89, well into her second full year of being without the love of her life, whom she met while they were both eight-year-olds figuring out what it meant to live in an orphanage. Never have I encountered anyone so small so tough. Pound for pound, she could go the full fifteen with Ali. We brought Jimmy Johns over for dinner last night, and she showed me how to use the remote for the new cable box, actually, two remotes. For reasons I haven’t yet figured out in forty-four years, she likes me, and I know I like her. After dinner I helped her solve a word puzzle; she and her daughter talked on the couch; and I sat there watching the White Sox host the Cardinals. My late father-in-law loved the St. Louis uniforms and Stan Musial. He always liked to say the Cardinals played baseball the right way. We listened to the game on the radio while driving home. Along with my mother-in-law, I can’t quite figure out why Len Kasper left the Cubs’ TV booth to do White Sox radio. For what it’s worth, I think he does a nice job, honoring the spirit of Ed Farmer without trying to imitate him. God knows he makes Jason Benetti sound like an adult when he subs for Steve Stone on television. We got home, I turned the game on and the Sox went to losing, 1-0, in the bottom of the sixth inning. Earlier, when I saw Andrew Vaughn first step in against St. Louis starter Kwang Hyun Kim, I felt he was going to have a good night and thought of calling Clare about my premonition. I should have. Vaughn doubled on the second pitch he saw from Kim. Then, in the sixth, with two out and one on, Vaughn homered. Not bad for a guy who hit into a triple play last week. After that, a game-tying homerun against Aroldis Chapman (and the hardest ever hit off of him, by the way) followed by a lead-changing shot against the Cardinals. Who says nice things don’t happen to decent people? My mother-in-law gave Michele a book to read; they’re working through a mystery series together. It’s the little things that get you through times like this.