A 95-year-old’s joy
- By Theodore Lewis
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Bridgman, MI—Our friend, Elaine, was born in 1930. Sharon and I have known her since we moved to Woodland Terrace in 2022. Elaine has been a resident of this retirement paradise in Bridgman since 2013. Her family farmed in Berrien County.
Elaine's greatest love and joy in life is following her beloved Detroit Lions football team and Detroit Tigers baseball team.
When Sharon and I became tablemates with Elaine and our mutual friend Terry a couple of years ago, our table became an awesome foursome. The four of us shared a real bond of friendship, and we were often the last table to clear out of the dining room.
As Sharon's advancing dementia would cause her to leave the dinner table sometimes abruptly, our friends would show real empathy and would never view Sharon's erratic, disease-driven behavior with anything but love.
One of the mutual bonds I've shared with Elaine is our lifelong fandom of the Detroit Tigers and Lions. As the baseball season spans from April to September/October, and the football season runs from September to January/February, there is usually fresh news to discuss about our beloved team's games and activities.
As the Lions’ mediocre history has been dramatically altered in the last three years with the rise of the Dan Campbell era in Detroit, Elaine's outlook on life has also undergone a significant shift. Her constant battle with diabetes, neuropathy and general aging has been offset with the joy and reflection of the gridiron performances of her boys, Jared Goff, Aiden Hutchinson, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs. Â
Since the Detroit Tigers' resurgence in 2024 under the leadership of manager AJ Hinch, Elaine has experienced non-stop joy year-round with the two loves of her life—the Tigers and Lions—performing exceptionally well.
Each day of the week would bring a table discussion around when the Lions' or Tigers' next game was and what Detroit's chances were of winning.  During football season, Elaine brings her Detroit Lions mug to the dining room at Woodland Terrace for each meal to enjoy her coffee. Elaine has the attitude of an eternal optimist. Of course, from my experience, to be a lifelong Lions fan, this attribute in the past needed to be a prerequisite. Â
Now that the Lions have become one of the NFL's best teams, a true fan must watch each game, if possible. Fortunately, most of the Lions games here in Michigan are televised on one of the traditional networks of CBS, Fox, NBC or ABC, while more and more NFL games are available only on pay-per-view channels. On occasions when the Lions broadcasts aren't on one of the legacy networks, Elaine will be beside herself.
Detroit Tigers fans in Michigan have traditionally been able to watch most Detroit Tigers games on TV. For many years, the Detroit Fox Sports TV Channel carried Tiger games, ensuring most fans could see most games. Then, a few years ago, the Bally Sports organization took over the TV broadcasts.
In May 2024, the regular broadcasts of Tiger games on our cable company (as well as other cable systems in Michigan) abruptly ended. This was due to the severe financial situation of Bally Sports Network and their agreements with most cable companies in Michigan to carry Tiger games fell apart.
For the rest of the 2024 Tiger season, most Tiger games were not available to watch on TV and Elaine became disheartened.
Before the start of the 2025 season, the Detroit Tigers announced they had a new TV broadcast agreement with the FanDuel Sports Network, which would televise most Tiger games with the very popular announcers Jason Benetti, Dan Petry, and Andy Dirks. However, the Detroit Fan Duel Sports agreements with cable companies would require a separate paid subscription for fans who wanted to watch the Tiger games.
As the 2025 Baseball season unfolded, the Detroit Tigers baseball team blazed their way into the first half of the season with an incredible winning performance that, at the season's midpoint, the All-Star break, had them with the best record of any team in both the American and National Leagues.
Since Sharon's admission to the Memory Unit last year, I no longer sit at the same table as Elaine in our Red Bud dining room. But after each meal, I will stop by her table and give her an update on the Tigers' most recent news.
As the season progressed from April into May, her tablemates and I could see the disappointment in Elaine's countenance as she was missing out on being able to see her beloved team play on TV.
Elaine's excitement over the historic season for the Tigers is doused by her disappointment over her inability to watch the games on TV. Her dismay is evident on her face every time she asks me if there has been any change in the status of Tiger TV broadcasts, and I have to reply that, unfortunately, the Tiger games are only available on pay-walled platforms.
After speaking with Elaine's tablemates, I knew we had to take action. We agreed to chip in and pay for a FanDuel Sports Network subscription for Elaine. I spoke with Tonya, the executive director, and her assistant, Martha, about signing up Elaine for the sports app streaming service. Martha contacted our cable company. On June 18, the FanDuel special box was installed on Elaine's TV. I also had it installed on my TV at the same time.
On July 6, as I watched the Tigers come from behind victory in extra innings on my newly installed FanDuel channel, I had to run down to Elaine's apartment to make sure she hadn't missed this most exciting moment. She was standing up, all excited, perhaps intuitively knowing that I would be coming to see her. As I greeted her with a "what a game!" she just gave me a hug, and with tears of joy streaming down her face, said: "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
I'm sure right now Elaine is the happiest 95-year-old in the State of Michigan.
Theodore Lewis is the former CEO of Guam Memorial Hospital and has a healthcare consulting business in Bridgman, MI. He is collecting stories about lessons learned in life and can be reached at theodorelewis@yahoo.com.
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