Lighten up Frances

When the Oldest One was significantly younger (though still the Oldest One)(obvs) she played softball.  For quite a few years, up until, I think high school.  And on one of her last teams, R. was the head coach and I was the assistant coach.  

The Oldest One was the catcher (oddly enough, the Heir to the Throne is a catcher now) and the pitcher was R's daughter M.  The Dragon Lady (btw, I don't really feel that way about the kids mother, but it's a catchy name that I stole from a dear friend) and I were, obviously, at every game as was R's wife P.  They were great people, we hung out together a little bit, but as often happens, after the girls grew up we fell out of touch with each other.  

The last time I saw R and P was about fifteen years ago, just a brief passing at the gas station in Burlington.  

That was the last time.

Until today.

While I was working with some local contacts to set up the events for today, one of the emails mentioned a home visit.  Regular readers will know what these consist of; a coupe guys get dressed up join pink turnout gear and we pull up to a house with lights and sirens and give a lot of hugs.  And sometimes flowers.

As I read the email regarding the home visit, P's name was on it.

The problem, according to the email, was that the original time for the visit wouldn't work for them.  They had previous commitments today and the afternoon was out.

The email asked if I could call P and see if there was anything we could do.

So I did.  How could I not make this home visit happen?

I called P yesterday, and when she answered, I identified myself.

Her response?

"Who is this?"

I laughed, gave her my name again and told her why I was calling.  This time she recognized my name and we had a really nice, if brief, chat.  And we rescheduled the home visit for 11:30 today.

It was really great.

P, R and M were all there, we took a bunch of pictures, gave many hugs, and did everything we could do to brighten the day for a family that's had better ones.  P is in her second go round against breast cancer and R was just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  So they both really appreciated the visit.

The other two events were at the local hospitals and they were pretty awesome too.  Especially the second one.  Sean, Don and Mike got dressed and went in to the treatment area to visit with some of the patients that weren't able to come out and see them, all three of the guys said it was extremely emotional and they were visibly touched by what they experienced inside.

Me?  I got to chat with a beauty queen.  So yeah, that's a win in my book...

The Boy Child and the Beatle Baby (he's not a baby anymore, lol) came by for a visit as did my local niece (with her ADORABLE daughter) and nephew (thanks for buying a shirt, sorry I didn't get a chance to say bye) and that's always pretty cool.

All in all a pretty good day.  It would have been ideal if we could have sold more t-shirts, (got to keep fuel in the trucks) but we'll work a little harder this weekend and hope for the best.

Ok, about the title.  When the girls played softball, M would occasionally get in to trouble on the mound.  She was a pretty darn good pitcher, but stuff happens, you know?  R would go out to the mound to try and get her focused, light a fire under her.  And usually it would work.  

But not always.  Sometimes it would have the opposite effect and you could see the pissed off look on her face.  So, to break the tension and to try and get her to relax, I'd yell to her from the dugout

"Lighten up Frances!"

A great line from the movie Stripes and invariably she'd loosen up and find the strike zone again.  

Pretty great day today.

Peace