My Grandma Sowa passed away when I was five. One of my most important memories is reading a passage at her wake. But before that, I never truly got to know who she was. My grandmother suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Her speech was slurred and slow, her gait onerous, and even making facial expressions proved a difficult task. To me, my grandmother existed in the world of nursing homes, antiseptics and little hard candies.

But despite these hardships, one of the first things I knew about Grandma Sowa was she was a Cubs fan. I used to go with my mother on game days and put on grandma’s Cubs hat so she could watch the game — I’d jump on the bed, snuggling next to my grandmother and using those little pink cotton swabs to clean off her lips. My mom would tell me stories of how she used to stay up until 1 in the morning with a can of beer and a stack of hard salami, watching the Cubs play. Whenever she got upset, she wouldn’t make a fuss; she’d just scrunch up her face and say, “Shit!” Whenever the Cubs managed to eek out a victory, my uncle would call out to her “Cubs win, Margaret!” Even to this day, we go to my grandma’s plot at Concordia Cemetery to put flags and other Cubs paraphernalia on her gravestone.

So naturally, as I sat in the Celtic Knot on Wednesday night, tightly gripping my friends in that manic, Cubs-fan way, my thoughts were of my Grandma Sowa. I watched the Cubs pull ahead imagining the smile on her face, and I watched them blow their lead while her tight-lipped “Shit!” echoed in my ears. And when Bryant snapped up that roller to make the final out of the game, I could only shout to the skies “Cubs win, Margaret!”

My grandma understood baseball is not about winning or losing but about faith and love. In sickness or in health, she loved this team with a truly inspiring strength. And even though my Grandma Sowa wasn’t able to see the W flying high, prouder than it has been in over a century, I can tell you truly that some things are worth waiting for.

— Martin Downs (Communication ‘17)