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It’s More Than a Game, My Friends.
Man, Michigan football can be so much more than a just a game. One man’s experiences don’t parallel the nexts in life. We all know that. And tonight, some dude I’ve never met kind of made my night. See, I’m going through a tough time right now in my life. Read on and you’ll most certainly learn why.
What I want you to feel after you read this – is joy. You may not believe me as you get deeper into the post, but it’s true. Swear. What happens on that field each Saturday isn’t quite “just a game”, it’s actually so much more when you get to share it with important people in your life. And it needs to be embraced in the moment, in memory, and as much as possible in the future.
Where am I going with this? you must be asking yourself. Be patient, and continue on.
So my dad had a season-ticket-holder buddy selling a couple tickets to tomorrow’s Eastern Michigan game at the Big House for face value. A buck forty for two tickets. Dad, the good dad that he is, just paid for them and sent them my way this week.
Michigan football is celebrated by many. We all have our own ways of celebrating our fandom for the great University of Michigan football program. Family traditions are abundant. Silly traditions happen left and right between friends, relatives, neighbors, and strangers you meet out and about. At the end of the day, many folks will tell you to sit down, settle down, and be quiet because, after all, those 18-22 ish year old kids you have never met and don’t know are just playing a game out there on that field.
But it’s not “just a game”, it’s so much more than a game.
I’m going to open up a little bit here and share a little bit of my personal life with you. Not typically my style, but I’m in the mood dammit. A couple feet to my right, lays my 53 year old mother. Some six years ago in 2005, my mom had been feeling a little funny and paid her doctor a visit to make sure all was well. This was in August of 2004. Mom tells the doc that her mother was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer when she was at the age of 47, the exact age of my mother at the time. Everything checks out – doc says she is good to go.
January 2005 rolls around. I’m a student at The University of Dayton at the time (I know right? I didn’t graduate from the University of Michigan.) and I got a phone call from my mom — she needed to have surgery to remove a tumor. So, kind of thinking the worst, I figured it was most probably cancer, but convinced myself that it couldn’t be because I was aware of her August appointment. Well, sure enough, the ol’ doc missed something in August, as my mother left surgery learning that she had an advanced stage of Ovarian Cancer, Stage 3C.
When this happens to your mom or your dad, you have an initial reaction and then it’s like a mental 1,000 piece puzzle that you gradually piece together as time creeps along. Cancer is not a car accident. I feel for those that lose their loved ones with no notice whatsoever. So, time passed, and I came to terms with the probable outlook for my mother. Five years and I was going to feel blessed that she made it that far. This is year number 6. If you haven’t ever been directly affected by cancer before, then you are lucky.
I look for no pity and that’s not what this post is about.
But life is about cherishing moments and times that are important to us. Life is limited, short, and temporary. Health is limited, short, and temporary.
Enjoying Michigan football with our fathers, sons, and brothers (sorry ladies!) is not something we get to do forever. It’s limited, short, and temporary. It means so much to so many, because it’s more than just a game.
Back to my mom. I’ve witnessed this disease literally steal my mother’s life from her, slowly. Really slowly and steadily.
Skip ahead if you want. I told you this was going to get personal, but I don’t much care. So I think on my mother’s fourth or fifth surgery, she woke up with an Ileostomy (wikipedia link if you don’t know what that is) bag hanging off her her stomach. Her biggest fear. My mom was a free bird who loved the sun and being outside, but those days were then over. The bathroom process was a 15 minute process – and she needed help because she became too weak to do everything correctly without making a mess.
Then, the bag of nutrients had to be hooked up to my mother’s port in her chest, as she could no longer ingest food. This bag provides her with all the fats, proteins, vitamins, etc. needed to get by each day. So for the past six weeks or so, the only food my mom has eaten is a few bites of an ice cream sandwiche, her choice treat. I don’t blame her. They are wonderful and delicious. On top of it all – she has no bladder / intestinal control – so diapers, wipes, and latex gloves are no longer foreign to me. And I can only imagine how she feels having to go through being changed, cleaned, etc.
Now, Mom has the hospice bed in the house and she’ll never get to get up again, walk, go outside, play a game, eat food she enjoys, watch a sunset or a sunrise, and that saddest part of it all – she’s 53. Her youngest son is 15. She knows her day is looming. All she can do about is cry, pray, and sleep.
Given my mom’s condition, I’ve spent weeks away from my home in Cincinnati to care for her up in northwest Ohio. On top of my mom’s deal, I had tickets to tomorrow’s game against Eastern. You know, the ones my dad bought and sent me. So no doubt I was going to make the trip up from Cincy to see my mom and go to the game. I wanted to take my little 15 year old brother to the game, but I come to find out he had a golf match in the morning. I could have decided to go up to A2 on by myself, but decided I needed to be with my mother as no other family can make it out to the house tomorrow.
So I was left with two tickets that my father dropped $140 on. How could I not use tickets my dad spent a good amount of money on? I certainly can’t waste them. I could peddle them and try to reimburse my dad.
Memories with your father are priceless. When I went out to mgoblog and posted that I had a couple of tickets and my current location – I ran into a guy that had never been to a Michigan game in the Big House with his Michigan-fan of a father. He told me his dad always wanted to get to a game, but hasn’t been able to work and just never had the opportunity. It sounded like they couldn’t really afford to get to a game before as he flat-out said they didn’t have much money.
About an hour later, Josh showed up at my mom’s house with a huge grin on his face as I handed him the two tickets.
Michigan football can be so much more than just a game. That guy is going to enjoy an experience with his father tomorrow that neither one of them will ever forget. Every time they catch the boys in maize and blue on TV, they can try and spot their location in the stadium where they sat. Those are the little things you do with the people that truly matter.
So, once again, I thank Michigan football for being the enabler that forces memories upon us and wins in our faces with :02 seconds left on the clock!
Oh yeah, and Dad, let me know if you want that $140 back. Maybe I’ll make it up to you with a couple tickets down the road. After all, it doesn’t get any better for me than splitting a six-pack or two with my dad a few hours before the game over a few bags of peanuts, just father and son catching up on life.
I read that as it transpired on the board and I thought it was pretty cool. I'm sorry to hear about your mom though.
Thanks man. Appreciated.
I ended up getting a press pass for that game. My dad picked up a ticket from StubHub, so we sort of went to the game together. I'll have to say it was a blast though. I think he might have gotten a picture of me somewhere.
How did you get a press pass?! That is really cool. I've thought about emailing Dave Ablauf, Michigan's media relations guy that handles all that stuff, to see what it takes to get a press pass. I'll have to jump on your blog and catch you there…
I am doing pictures for an Eastern Michigan blog. The home opener for Eastern was the first time I'd ever taken pictures from the sidelines and it was fun. The guy who runs that blog said that he would try to get one for the Michigan game and he did. I would love to get more passes for Michigan but it is my understanding they don't normally credential blogs but maybe that is changing as blogs are getting better and more like the real media outlets (newspapers, news channels, etc).
John and I are not big sport fanatics, so I was a little concerned with how much I would enjoy this play. But I was delighted with the story and the actors were so perfectly matched to the characters of the play that once again, The Warehouse Theatre enchanted my family! The next time I’m walking through WestEnd in downtown Greenville, I think I’ll pause a little while to admire the statue of Shoeless Joe =)