One of the only benefits of my mom going through her battle
the last few months was that our family had plenty of time to prepare and discuss
things like her funeral. When she told
me a few weeks ago she wanted me to speak, on one hand I was honored while on
the other I knew I would have a hard time getting through it. So while I am
honored to be here today, I’m also a cry baby so you’ll have to bear with me.
My mom and I have always had a great relationship.
Regardless of dumb things I’ve said or done growing up, I’ve always felt an
unconditional love from her that I’ve tried try to pass on and make a constant
with my kids. I’ve always loved her for
that.
One of the unique aspects to our relationship has been our
love of sports. Those of you that know
me know I love many different sports, but two of my favorites are Golf and all
University of Utah sports. Both my mom
and I attended The University of Utah and love golf, and she had the same
passion for these as I do.
I think I first realized her athletic ability when I was in
Jr. High. It was toward the end of
summer break and I was out of school. I
was lying around the house one day and didn’t have anyone to play with. I think my friends were out of town or
something. Anyway, I was really bugging
my mom since I had nothing to do. She
kept telling me to “go do something, go outside or go find something to do” I
told her there was nothing to do and I was bored etc. This went on for a while and finally she
said, “If you’re just going to sit around, why don’t you go get a job”. Before I could even think of what I was
saying, I replied,” why don’t YOU get a job”.
As soon as I said it and saw her response I knew it wasn’t a very smart
thing to say. She jumped up faster than
I had ever seen her move and started calling me a little a (something I can’t
say in church). I’d never seen that kind of athletic ability in her. She grabbed an empty two litter bottle on
the kitchen counter and started after me. I was really surprised how fast she
could move, I was pretty fast and took off into the garage and outside. Luckily once I got outside she stopped
chasing me and simply told me I couldn’t come home until after I talked to my
dad.
She and I loved to talk about and watch golf. I play golf with my dad all the time, but my
mom was the person who signed me up for my first golf lessons when I was young
boy and the one who would drop me off and pick me back up from those
lessons. She was a very good golfer
herself and loved to play when she could.
From the time I was 8 or so, I always remember Sunday afternoons we
would watch professional golf on TV and root for and talk about who our
favorite players were or are. For the
last several years, she would invite us over to watch the final round big golf
tournaments like the Masters and US Open.
When I was in high school, I saved up my money and bought a
brand new very nice sand wedge. It took
me a long time to earn enough money to buy it and I would play around the house
with it all the time. Chipping balls in
the back yard, and swing it in our big family room. The family room had really high ceilings so
it was easy to swing a club in there.
One day I was sitting in the family room swinging in back and forth and
my mom came in from the other room and saw me.
She didn’t get mad at me, but she said that if I broke anything in the
house I was buying her a replacement. Well,
there was a glass top coffee table in the room pretty close to where I was
swinging the club and no less than 5 min later, I took a swing and shattered
the coffee table. It was really loud and
I knew instantly that she heard it break from upstairs. I was really worried about my mom’s reaction
and the damage I’d done to my wedge; I knew she wasn’t going to be happy when
she came into the room. I was surprised
when she waked in and didn’t get very mad.
She looked at me like I wasn’t very smart and simply told me to start
saving my money. Secretly I think she
wasn’t too mad because another passion she had was buying new furniture and she
knew she now had a good reason to buy a new coffee table In any event, I saved up and replaced the
glass I broke. It took me a few months
but the new glass was just like the old one.
She eventually did by a new coffee table and gave me the glass one I had
replaced. I kept it in their basement storage room for a few years and then
when I bought my house, it was the first coffee table Michelle and I had and we
used it for many years.
In recent years she would text message me all the time when
she heard something about golf or what was going on with Phil Mickleson or any
of her other favorite players. Anything
and everything sports she was interested in.
Another sports passion she had was for all University of
Utah sports. She is what I would refer
to as a FANATIC when it came to Utah sports.
She would text me when she heard something on the news, sports talk
radio, newspaper etc. about a Utah player coach or a recruit, you name it. She would get so anxious and nervous during
games sometimes that she couldn’t watch if it was on TV. She would record it and then find out if they
won or not and go back and watch if they did win. If they lost she would delete it and never
watch it again. It’s a habit I picked up
from her and do myself from time to time.
We went to and watched many, many games together. We would yell and scream, if there was a
referee call that went against the Utes, it was a terrible call according to my
mom regardless of the situation. The
last football game I went to her with as the Utah vs. Stanford game this
year. At one point during the game,
there was a questionable referee call and the entire crowd started booing. We all started booing too, and mom
immediately stood up and was screaming at the ref. She was screaming so loud I thought she was
going to have a heart attack right there.
I looked at her and said, MOM, you have got to settle down. The guys behind us told her they loved it and
she should keep doing it. A few weeks
ago I told her every time I’m at a game and see someone going nuts in the
stands I was going to remember that story and think of her.
She really loved football, basketball, everything University
of Utah. One real benefit of that for me
was the gear. She was always buying Utah
sweat shirts, stickers, license plate covers, you name it. If it had a Utah logo on it, she was
interested. The benefit for me was often
times I would be at work and get a text from her with a picture of a Utah hoody
she saw at the store. She would ask me
if I liked it and when I said I did, she would say “ok, come over and pick it
up when you can” I must have about 20
Utah tee shirts and sweatshirts my mom bought for me. The combination of her love for shopping and
Utah sports was a dangerous combination.
With all of her love for sports, I think the greatest fight
I’ve seen in her play was with her recent battle with Cancer. She fought it with everything she had and it
was too powerful in the end. I’ll always
remember the grace and dignity and strength she had in her battle and
throughout her life.
I miss and will miss her tremendously but find
comfort knowing I’ll see her again someday.
Also knowing that she’ll be right there with me the next time I’m
screaming at a football game or watching the Masters. I love and miss you Mom, forever and always.