But Then What Happened?

  I must relay one more high school softball story that I’ve always thought was pretty cool. During Tara’s senior season, our rival, in all sports was the “Little Dutch” from nearby Pella High School. Pella had assembled quite the softball program and had wrestled the league title away from Grinnell during the regular season, beating us twice in the process. As the playoffs began, our bracket showed that in order to make the State Tournament, we would have to beat Pella in the regional final... assuming both teams made it that far and... both teams made it that far. We were pitted against our arch rivals... a game that would decide if Tara was to make it to state... one more time.  Pella rode the arm of their pitching ace, Julia Nurse, all season. She was clearly one of the best pitchers in the state. Grinnell had Shelley Davis on the mound and she was an accomplished hurler herself. The stage was set. The regional final was to be played at the friendly confines of Grinn...

  To stay in chronological order of events, I must, at this point, divert my narrative from the subject of sports... and mention a single conversation that Tara and I had when she was in the sixth grade, the content and context of which would have much more meaning years later. We were in the car, running some errands, just Tara and me. We were discussing the fact that she was in her seventh year of school and had never missed a single day. Not one! This was an amazing feat and I told her so. I also told her that the chances of continuing this streak through graduation were slim and none. “What would you do if I actually did graduate with 13 years of perfect attendance?” She inquired. “I’d buy you a new car!” I answered impulsively yet with clear confidence that I would never have to grapple with that issue. It was a throwaway conversation and one that I quickly forgot. Tara played all the sports through junior high... volleyball, basketball and softball... and excelled a...

  Long before he became Mr. Huxtable, a Jell-O pitchman and ultimately... a federal convict in a fashionable orange jumpsuit, Bill Cosby had a comedy bit in which he described the births and personalities of his first two daughters. The first one, Erica, came out perfectly well mannered, polite and compliant. His second daughter, Erinn, emerged from the womb, as Cosby puts it, with champagne in one hand, a cigarette in the other and demanding to speak to the person in charge. Mae & Tara Erica/Erinn...Maelynne/Tara... sort of. Tara has been the “take charge” sibling from the jump... but in a good way. Before I get too deeply into this story, let me answer the obvious question: why is this entitled, “Wally?” Because that’s what I have called Tara since she was in junior high. There must be a great story behind this nickname, right? Nope. One day, I just called her Wally. No reason. Just me being weird. And she has been “Wally” or “Wallace” ever since. Tara was born on a...