by Jamison

German,Offramps and Baseball

(This was written after the service for our mom but captures the spirit of what was said).

I have three things I would like to say. An observation, a story and a message. What we feel now is deep grief and pain. What is different about my mom's passing to me compared to the other three deaths I have experienced in my life is that we are absent the feeling of shock. As we do feel after a crash death or some other instant event. In our case with our mom, we had a chance to say the things we needed and wanted to say and so did she. And we told her we loved her and that she was a great mom. That is my observation.

The story about my mom is when our family was in Germany in about 1990....twenty years ago. We had just parked our car and were approaching a Germany department store to look at furniture and/or dishware. There was an older German man leaning with one hand up against the side wall of the store and his other hand obviously aiding in his urination on the bush. My mom yelled “Gross!” in English. The German man heard “Grosse” auf Deutsch (the German word for Big) and kindly replied with “Danke!” which is the German word for thank you.

The message is based on the observation and taken from a lesson from the North Boise Little League 2010 Braves experience. As we rose further up the victory ladder from semi finals to finals, the stakes become larger at each level. The reward was great but so was the risk. BUT regardless of how far we went in the World Series, we all had EXIT RAMPS somewhere. Ours could be this game, tomorrow's or who knows. So say what you need to say today and do what you need to do today. Respect that we all have exit ramps and do not wait until it is too late in your life.

Jamie