Caterwauling

My friend D. hooked me up with this story today:

“Woman takes husband’s ashes to Steelers game.”

“PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) — Richard Desrosiers never made it to Heinz Field to watch his beloved Steelers play football, but his widow helped him fulfill his dream in death.

Thanks to some help from sympathetic donors, Kathleen Desrosiers attended Sunday’s game, bringing an urn with some of her late husband’s ashes, as well as his ring and two pictures of him. He had died in March of a brain tumor.”

I was sort of waiting to read that they scattered his ashes on the field, or at least in one of the, oh, three nearby rivers. But I guess he made the travels with her and went home to New Hampshire.

And that’s why this story means so much, not (just) that it’s about a Steeler fan but because of how he got there:

“Amy Litterini, a western Pennsylvania native who now lives in New Hampshire, was the couple’s counselor during Desrosiers’ yearlong battle with cancer.

She arranged for the purchase of the two tickets to Sunday’s game and raised money for Kathleen Desrosiers and one of her sons to spend a night in a Pittsburgh hotel.”

I really needed to read that today, to believe that those who have passed on are still with us somehow — even if not in spirit (which I hope they are) but in influencing the things we grow to love. I guess, in that regard, we can’t help but let them live on.

And it also warmed my charred little heart that someone would be so kind as to make this dream possible, when anyone else would have walked away and not done anything like this for the family. Shit, my grandfather’s brothers have (thankfully) evaporated into thin air — not a one has sent so much as a Christmas card, although I hear they’re all bitching amongst themselves that Mom doesn’t call any of them. Fools.

The greatest gift that family can give is the gift of getting the hell out of our lives, and I’m eternally grateful for that. Although … I wouldn’t let them know that they were doing us a favor, because they’d probably have to end the peace and call to antagonize us!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 6:47 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.