Bill Byham (WOL File Photo)
CINDY’S STORY – I really didn’t know her very well. She grew up with her family. She was the middle of three children so she sort of had to scrap for her space. Her older sister was a touch prettier and her brother was the big jock in school.
I guess we could identify her as the tom boy in the family, She, as we said, was a scrapper. She liked her life and filled it by being active. In class, in the hallways at school and in the sport programs.
She followed the accepted life pattern of doing her thing. To the point she found her man, married him and went with him as his work took him away from the family. Between them they gave birth to a daughter and all seemed right with their world.
That is until Cindy became ill. Seriously ill.
After all kinds of medical examinations performed by all kinds of medical doctors a diagnosis was given. Multiple Sclerosis.
The terrible illness that can and does create a change of life. There is no cure. There is no timetable. The disease attacks the nerve system, eats at that system until it becomes a crippler.
It happened to Cindy. While it took its good old time she lived the MS life. It turned her from being an independent person to one who needed assistance to get around, to do a lot of the little things that any other person can easily do on their own. Combing her hair, cutting her nails, opening the mail, cooking and eating her meal, having a relationship with her husband or going shopping with her growing daughter.
The fight was on. It became a case whether Cindy would simply lie down and wait for the disease to take her. Or a case where she would fight to hang on to life as long as it could last. Maybe long enough for a cure. A miracle dose of something that would arrest the disease.
Cindy chose to fight. To meet the opponent head on, face to face just as she did in the sports she played,
The battle went from year to year, month to month, week to week and then it was day to day. From being able to handle this chore to having some one else handle the chore.
The disease was winning.
Then, one day, it won. It took Cindy to her new world. Exhausted but she left the pain behind. For the first time in many years she was at peace.
But what a life fight she fought. She is missed but she is remembered.
I want to tell you this. If I was still coaching my players would hear the Cindy story. I would want them to know this brave woman, wife and mother. I would want them to know that if they wanted to play they had to be good enough to play. I would want them to know that we only have the one time to play the game. That the game is to be played from beginning to the end. That we each have to compete in every play that comes our way. I would want them to know the game does not owe us one thing. That we owe the game the very best we can give it.
Cindy gave her game the best she had. When we last saw her she lived in a wheel chair, could hardly hold her head up, could not cut her food but she looked up from her pain and smiled. She fought knowing the game was close to being over. While the disease took her she was the real winner.
I would just hope that every player on every team would come to play with the same outlook Cindy did.
ONE OF MY CINDYS IS ON THE STAGE TONIGHT – Greg Sye, the senior scrapper for Lycoming hoops, is one of my Cindys. Hard working and gets all out of a game he can get, just posted a pair of great games in the Holiday Inn Airport tourney in Rochester, N.Y. Sye, often working against must taller opponents, scored 44 (22/ 22) points and had 16 boards as Lycoming split the pair of games. His effort placed him on the All Tourney team along with sophomore Will Kelly of Loyalsock Twp. who scored 32 (16-12) points in the two games.
Tonight (Wednesday) Sye will see if his Warriors (3-2) .can move ahead as they play at Elmira.
GOTTA A 30 STORY - I am a rare one. I like this time of year and going to the stores. This year I am not moving like in the past so I find a chair to do my waiting (people watching).
On this day we are in T.J. Max. I am in a chair right at the front of the store and two ladies come to join the growing number already in the store.
The one lady recognizes me for whatever reason. She tells me she reads this space (Great!) and that she has a friend who also reads this space (Another Great!).
“We work in the medical field and we both have reports to write and turn in. You will get a kick knowing that my friend, when she finishes writing her reports, signs them – That’s 30.” ( A 3rd Great!)
WATCH OUT BUCKS! – It is that time when the men, women and kids you know put on the warm outdoor clothing, dabbed in red, pick up their deer rifles and head for the deep woods in search of the buck.
It is a thrill to make the hit, to bring one home for all to see. We at-homers are asking the “army” to be careful. Make sure the target is what you are out there hunting for on this day.
THAT’S 30
Filed under: Bill Byham , Sports Digest
