The surprise he had mentioned was immediately apparent. Wearing faded jeans, a blue silk jersey, and silver earrings, her Mother was sitting beside him. His arm was casually thrown across her shoulders.
A family memory played in her mind. On September night ten years ago when the Steelers came to town for Monday Night Football, instead of watching the game on television, Peggy and her Mother sat for the first time in the stands at Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It was a Labor Day surprise for her Dad. She still remembered how happy he looked when he saw them in the stands. She still remembered the thrill of watching him flatten many nameless men who tried to interfere with Terry Bradshaw's march to the Patriots' end zone. It was a long late summer night game that went into overtime, but she and her Mom ate hotdogs and potato chips. Steelers 16, Patriots 13.
Peggy was asleep by the time her Dad arrived at their home that night, but he stayed for a few days showing her how to attack tackle dummies that he had installed in the back yard.
Today Today, in a Sacramento Valley stadium, for the first time in her memory, her parents sat together in a football stadium.