Wednesday night, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series championship since 1908, giving their fans something they had been waiting literally a lifetime to experience. It was a truly special moment you can't really understand unless you're a Cubs fan.
One lifelong Cubs fan lived just long enough to see his favorite team win a title. According to Mike Kilen of the Des Moines Register, 85-year-old Darel Sterner of West Liberty, Iowa, was in hospice care surrounded by his family Wednesday night when the Cubs won their first championship in 108 years. He died three hours later.
Here's some more from Kilen:
His health faded as the playoffs wore on, and the family gathered in his home as he took hospice care. By Game 7 of the World Series, he was drifting in and out.
Donna Sterner, his wife of 62 years, was there to watch the deciding game, as were children Durk and Darla, Durk's wife Jill and their two adult children, Holli and Nick. A few feet away in the bedroom, Darel had his own TV near the bed, the Cubs game against the Cleveland Indians roaring in his ears.
The broadcast on his TV was delayed a few seconds, so the family silently cheered each pitch in the next room. They checked on Sterner as he drifted out, whispering the score in his ear. Hospice workers told them that hearing was the last thing to go.
Sterner was a well-known barber in downtown West Liberty, and his son called him "an ornery cuss" who loved to play pranks on people. The family would take trips to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field, and when Sterner closed down his shop, he took his antique barber chair and Cubs banner home.
Kilen says Sterner will be buried Monday and a Cubs championship t-shirt will be placed in his casket. Durk said telling his father the Cubs had won the World Series was a moment that will stay with him forever.
