Nationals 9, Cubs 4

All About Arnold
Sep 1, 2018 · 2 min read
August 11, 2018. Wrigley Field, Chicago.

It was just an average Saturday night. My daughters were down south in Limburg visiting their grandparents and I was home eating pizza, popcorn and watching the Cubs playing the Nationals live on MLB.tv — like I do about 150 evenings each baseball season.

Like I said, it was just an average Saturday night.

Until a message notification from Facebook rang out on my iPhone.

“Hi Richard, I hope you are doing well. I’m sorry to share this with you, but I just found out that Arnie passed away.”

I had only met my first cousin (Arnold’s sister’s daughter) less than a month before after finding her — by happenstance — on Facebook, and we had exchanged a dozen or so messages and photographs.

It was a bittersweet encounter as it was the first time I had ever been in contact with anyone from Arnold’s family in all of my 55 years; the bitterness of having been a first-born son and grandchild abandoned by an entire family, juxtaposed with the sweetness of being so openly accepted by my cousin who was happy to share her stories, recollections and family photos with me.

While news of Arnold’s passing — and the details which ensued — was an unexpected shock, my cousin, who had just moments before revealed the tragic news, posted a photograph in our message thread with the following caption that immediately brought a bit of levity to the situation:

“Guess where I am.”

It turns out that she had received the message from a cousin — the daughter of Arnold’s mother’s sister — while sitting in the stands at Wrigley Field during the Cubs-Nationals afternoon game.

After a number of messages were exchanged, I decided to turn off the game and go to bed. I anticipated having a difficult time falling asleep, pondering a lifetime thinking about this man I never knew — save for one fleeting telephone conversation some 15 years before — but apparently I was so exhausted from a full day of barbering and so emotionally consumed by the news of Arnold’s passing, that I was probably asleep before ever hitting my pillow.

I woke to the news of the Cubs having lost to the Nationals by a score of 9 to 4 and to the reality that Arnold was gone. Again. Forever.

    All About Arnold

    Written by

    Reflections of a man I never knew; a father who never was; and a lifetime of mysteries that would never be solved. By American writer R.M. Usatinsky.

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