Both my teams won yesterday. Collegiate. Professional. I feel good. And I am still at a loss to explain how I missed the Astros in the World Series last year. I guess I was grieving harder than I thought. I mean, it’s a total blank. Weird. No surprise though. My focus at this point last year was a party. Each year on the day after Thanksgiving my little town lights up and people come from all over to see the show. I thought it would be a good idea to have a party for kids at my house to watch the fireworks and see the lights go on.

The idea was to help me get back the Christmas spirit which I lost the previous year after my wife passed. It worked. I decorated the house to a fare thee well. Brought down all the decorations. Bought new lights. Put up everything. Then I had a party. There were children with their folks. There was music, laughter, food. And we all had a good time. Christmas was restored. So, I guess its no wonder baseball took a vacation last year, at least in my life.

It’s back this year. I want our boys to win. I watched the first two games with old friends in Houston. I’ll have to figure out what to do come Monday when the games resume. I may call around to see if any of my local buddies are up for company. I can call it phase two of my healing process, getting back into the world by bringing baseball back into my life. And yes, I’m having another post-Thanksgiving party this year because it was fun and sometimes you need new traditions.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale