I gave you just a taste recently of my old buddy Chris Walterskirschen who recently died.
But I thought it turned out to be less about him and more about me and that was not my intent.
You see Chris was truly one of a kind who just couldn’t catch a break.
Crohn’s disease affected the better part of his life and he saw things through a binocular that he held to one eye since he was legally blind.
The good Lord has a way to make us spectacular in one way when we are failing in another and that truly was the case with Chris.
Basically he poses a photographic memory but not just recalling scores and pertinent stats
He not only retained that kind of info easily but also was able to grasp the time and date that your child was born or maybe even someone more obscure than that.
But maybe more important than those things that indeed give him extreme pleasure was his love for the little people of his life.
There never was a youngster he didn’t look to help grow into a skilled human being.
A legend among little leaguers even from other towns when there was no one to handle PA during Mavericks American legion games, he quickly stepped in and remember please he was legally blind.
There will never be another like him nor will I ever forget.
He sat faithfully by the telephone in both football and basketball fielding scores and updating info and became to be known across the Big Sky Conference as evidenced by posts on his Facebook page after his death.
And several years ago – I guess actually decades we propose d a daily trivia column which he accomplished for many years.
His desk spaces though at both the paper and his apartment became increasingly difficult to deal with mostly because it was challenging for him to keep it tidy. He was a stacker and acquirer like me.
And eventually ha was shoved out of the paper which about fractured his spirit more than most people knew. Similar problems also brought his contribution to the Grizzlies to an end.
I own a copy of Jiggs Dahlberg’s “Red Book.”
But I prefer all that knowledge that Chris shared with us and while it hurt him deeply when he didn’t get the understanding his ailments often required there were several who stuck by his side to the end.
I wish I had been able to do more but sincerely am thankful to those who remained so faithful in providing transportation, understanding and most importantly a kind word.
