 BOWL O PINION by Jim Goodwin
Expo Week Was Great, but Bittersweet
Another International Bowl Expo is in the books, and like all the others, this one will have special memories for the thousands who attended. For us, unfortunately, not all the memories will be pleasant.
The days before Expo were busy as usual, especially on Saturday as we scrambled to take care of last minute business and prepare for the five-day trip. We set the alarm for 4am before retiring for the night around 11, thinking that we would be really tired in the morning; but we could catch a nap on our 6am flight from Dallas to Vegas.
At 1:15am, everything changed when the cell phone rang. Calls in the dead of night are never good, and this one fit the often used “dreaded” description. I answered praying that all of our kids and grandkids were alright. It wasn’t a relative, but a dear friend, Jane Steinsiek.
“Oh Jim, thank God you answered,” she said, speaking almost incoherently. I could sense the shear panic in her trembling voice, and I was truly concerned that she would pass out because she was breathing rapidly and speaking in spurts.” I kept saying to her, ‘Jane, take a deep breath’. . .‘Jane, try to calm down’ but I knew it was no use. Finally, after about half a minute that seemed like an hour, she said “Walt is on the floor, and he’s not breathing!”
Hearing that, I immediately said “Jane, hang up and call 911, and then call me back.” She said “No. I already did. The men are here working on Walt, but they can’t get him to wake up. I just don’t know what to do. I just don’t know what to do. I had to talk to someone. I had to talk to someone!”
So we talked.
I don’t remember most of what we said to each other. What can be said in a moment like this? I just tried to assure her that the paramedics were good at what they do, and we could pray that Walt would be saved.
When I asked what happened, she said Walt was getting ready to leave for the airport, and he said “I don’t feel so good.” She said she didn’t worry at that point, because he often felt queasy before traveling, but this time was different. Just after kissing her goodbye, Walt said to Jane “I think I’m going to pass out.” A moment later, he said he had a burning in his chest, and fell to the floor unconscious, face down.
She could not get him up or revive him, so she called 911. Within five minutes, the emergency crew arrived at the door. And as she watched the terrible scene in front of her eyes, she called me, and I became a part of the worst moment of her life. I hope I made it a little more bearable. Half way through the call, CJ was by my side, hearing my half of the conversation, and feeling every bit as helpless as me.
A few minutes later, she said they were taking Walt out the door, and again, she didn’t know what to do. I was puzzled as to why the emergency crew wasn’t communicating with her; maybe because she was on the phone with me? Finally, a policeman came in with a neighbor, who said he would help Jane get to the hospital only a mile away. I asked her to call me back when she knew something.
I hung up, and CJ and I said a silent prayer for Walt and Jane.
A few minutes later, around 2:00am, Jane called to tell us Walt was gone. “They said there was just nothing they could do. What am I going to do without him? What am I going to do? I’m lost without him,” she kept repeating . . . and we just listened. We just let her talk and say whatever she wanted for as long as she wanted.
This time CJ talked to Jane for a few minutes, and when we made sure that she had some neighbors and people from the church with her, we hung up . . .and just sat in silence for a long while, stunned at what had just happened.
I promised Jane I would call Bob Cosgrove, and I reached him only 20 minutes before he was leaving for the airport to meet us all in Vegas. He was shocked and saddened, to say the least. He and Walt often roomed together at bowling functions, and Expo was to be another chapter in their close friendship.
There was no way we could sleep, so we headed for the airport about an hour ahead of schedule. Still too early to call most people, we waited until a decent hour when we made our connection in Salt Lake. I called my friend Jim Dressel, BWAA president Jackie Wyckoff, and Lenny Nicholson, who was on his way to the airport. Lenny had asked me to help present the Kegel John Davis Award to Walt a few days later. It was going to be a big surprise. I called Jim Wyckoff, one of Walt’s best friends.
Muddling through the week
Looking back, it is mostly a blur. It was one of the busiest Expo’s ever for us, but we were never fully engaged. Every day was filled with thoughts of Walt and Jane, and the unavoidable “What if.”
At the BWAA Board of Directors meeting, we got a Life Members report from Mary Lynly, and we thought “What if Walt had been there as he planned? Would it have gone differently?”
At the BWAA membership meeting, BWAA members approved the adoption of the “Steinsiek Cartoonist Award” as an official BWAA award. It had been on the agenda for weeks.A good thing, but very sad that Walt was not there to enjoy the moment.
On Tuesday evening, at the Columbia BWAA Awards Dinner, there was an empty seat at our table, and I thought how Walt would have enjoyed the conversation with CJ and I, Evelyn Peoples, Norm Duke, Jeff Henry and Jan Schmidt. Of how he would have been thinking of new cartoons to draw, or gathering news for his Florida newspaper columns. It was at this dinner a few years ago that he was surprised with the coveted Sam Levine Flowers for the Living Award.
The next morning, we sat with a few thousand others to listen to keynote speaker Sarah Palin praise bowling and talk about her hope for our country, and we thought of Walt. Walt loved Palin’s message, and he was looking forward to having the opportunity to hear her speak and meet her. He drew a special cartoon in her honor, showing her sitting atop a bowling ball and shouting her famous campaign mantra “Drill Baby, Drill!” He hoped to get her autograph when he presented it to her.
At the Expo Trade Show, Walt was to be the opening act in our BWAA Phantom Radio Stage Show. At the end of his interview with Lenny Nicholson and Jim Dressel, John Davis was going to surprise him with the prestigious John Davis Award for his outstanding service and contributions to the sport and industry. Instead, we did a melancholy tribute to our fallen friend.
All day Wednesday and Thursday, Jim and Lenny interviewed distinguished industry guests, many who were Walt’s pals, and we thought how much he would have enjoyed being there as a valued member of our committee.
On Friday morning, we took the advice we had given Jane at the beginning of the week. We took a deep breath, let out a sigh of sad relief, and headed home.
The sadness remains; but also a smile when we think of the joy this man brought to us and thousands more with his wonderful talent and attitude. |
