Maybe This Year

My great aunt died on Saturday. She lived in Buffalo and I hadn’t seen her too much recently, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t know her.

She was as tough as New Yorkers come and as loyal as Yankee fans can be. The first thing she said last summer when she got sick was:

“Maybe they’ll win a World Series for me this year.”

That didn’t happen and she took it hard for a few days. But then her attention turned to this year even though doctors said she would never make it to October.

Her last days weren’t good because last days never are. She refused to let anyone visit, but I’m sure the Yankees were there. They were always important to her.

Family legend says that she once went to see the Yankees play in Cleveland and got into a scuffle defending Mickey Mantle’s honor.

The last time I saw her was a few years ago at Mickey Mantle’s Restaurant in Manhattan. It was a Saturday and she had a hamburger and french fries and talked about the Yankees win over the Orioles that afternoon. It was a good day.

The Yankees gave her a lot of good days and some bad ones, too. She died on Saturday and the Yankees won on Sunday.

She would have said:

“That figures.”

But then she would have laughed and said:

“Maybe they’ll win a World Series for me this year.”

Yeah, maybe this year, Aunt Joyce.