Ah, Cubbies…..you’re breaking my heart……!

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you believe that a really strong spirit can come back to visit Earth after it has passed on to the next plane?

Maybe if a person has been particularly single minded in this earthly life, and if something extra special happens on earth after that person has moved on, maybe that person can come back to experience that special event.  You think?

I believe it.  I do!

And I believe that if that person is so strong and so focused, I truly believe that he or she can bring a few other people back from the other side, too.  Just for a short time. Maybe just for a very, very special celebration.

Who knows?

I can’t know for sure, of course, given that I am stuck here in this earthly plane for now.  I can’t see those spirits who come back to join us in our mortal lives.

But I do have a pretty strong hunch that right this very minute down in the clubhouse at old Wrigley Field, the shortstop of the 1945 Cubs has come back to taste the bubbly with the boys.  I’m almost sure that as those young men hug each other and pound each other on the back, Uncle Lennie Merullo is standing right there in the middle of them, laughing out loud and soaking up the spotlight.

If I know my Uncle Lennie, his spirit is moving around the room, hoping to get itself into every news reporter’s shot.  He’ll be trying to hold up his left hand, showing off that big shiny World Series Ring.  He’ll be giving his big, familiar grin, and his dark eyes will be sparkling with humor and pride. “I was the last living Cub to have played in a World Series!”, he’ll be crowing. “When I died last May, there was no one left alive how had played in a Series for the Cubs!”

And just as surely as I know that Uncle Lennie is there, right smack in the middle of that crazy celebrating gang of young Cubbies, I know that his brothers, all 8 of them, are standing in the doorway, peeking into the room in awe.  I know that his three sisters are giggling, shaking their heads and watching the action.

I know they’re there. I can feel them as I look at the TV screen.

Do you believe in ghosts?

I sure do.

Uncle Lennie, damn, I wish you could have hung on for this night! But I know you’re helping from the other side. Keep cheering!  Keep on pulling strings! 

And can you please tell my Dad how much I miss him?  Love you!