Fifth and Jackson – ESPN Outside the Lines

Fifth and Jackson – ESPN Outside the Lines

The box is made of cardboard, about the size of a miniature refrigerator and coated by the dust that accompanies decades of solitude. Once every couple of years or so, Youvene Whistler thinks about digging deep into her bedroom closet, past her slacks and winter jackets and shoes and scarves and whatnot, about opening the box and facing the most piercing pain she has ever known.

And then — on the verge of reliving the death of Lyman Bostock, her beloved husband — she will do nothing.

It is hard to blame her. Time, after all, is impatient. In the 30 years since Bostock was shot and killed in Gary, Ind., Whistler has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She has remarried, raised an 18-year-old daughter, gotten a divorce, become a program manager for a community-based nonprofit. She has traveled the country, experienced love and loss, joy and pain. The 20-something baseball wife who used to hide fruit in her purse and sneak it into Anaheim Stadium is now a 58-year-old woman, confident and mature and light-years removed from that life.

espn.com
9/17/08