I would like to tell you about the first conversation I had with Lynne Dominico – and the last one.

The first was in April of 1979, almost 30 years ago. After seeing a posting on the bulletin board at Ryerson advertising for a PA announcer, statistician and writer for a local baseball team, I was hired by Jack Dominico to fill that role for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I told him I would see him at Christie Pits the following Sunday. He had someone lined up to do the first game of the season, but I would meet that person and him at the park and we’d get me all set up. Delighted, I went home to Montreal for a few days before coming back to Toronto on Friday.

My roommate greeted me in a panic. He said I’d better call a guy named Jack Dominico right away or else I was going to be fired from my job as PA announcer for not being around when he called. That I had not yet even started the job didn’t seem to matter.

Somewhat shaken, I called the Dominico household and for the first time, with Jack not available, I spoke with Lynne Dominico.

“Mrs. Dominico,” I said (that was the first and last time I called her anything besides Lynne by the way). “I told your husband I was going to Montreal and would be back on Friday, but I got this message that he was mad and…”

She cut me off before I could finish in a very soothing voice. “Oh don’t worry about Jack. He gets a little excited from time to time.”

That by the way, as I would later discover, is the understatement of the century.

At any rate I hung up feeling much better after my first conversation with Mrs. Dominico, who told me then to call her Lynne which I did for the next 30 years, sitting next to her for many of the 609 games I’ve done since then as PA announcer, statistician and writer for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Fast forward 30 years…and folks, believe me, they did go fast. My final conversation with Lynne was about a week before she died, once again on the phone as I’d heard her courageous battle with cancer was winding down.

Her voice was down to a whisper and her breathing was labored, but I heard every word.

After she told me things were not good, that her voice was the way it was because “it’s the disease” and I understood the reality, we chatted like we did for so many years at the Pits whiling away time while watching the Leafs. We talked about the U.S. election (she “wasn’t quite sure” what to think about that), the state of the economy, how Nicki and Ryan and Rita were doing, the weather and a few other topics, when we then got down to the reason for my call.

I told her she was like family to me, and I thanked her for everything she and Jack had done for me. I told her I could never have had the career I have enjoyed without their support, especially in the early years.

She told me that her and Jack couldn’t have done as well as they did without having someone with my talents with them for so long, someone who could do as many things so well for them. So we called that one even.

We talked about the legacy of Christie Pits and both came to the conclusion that the whole thing “was kind of cool when you think about it.” It sure is.

Then she asked me how I was doing. Imagine, in her condition wanting to know how I was. I answered the only way I could – that I was great, I had nothing to complain about, and life was good for me. It was not a lie to make her feel better it is the truth because I am blessed …and it’s true in large part for having known her for 30 years.

She then whispered something that is still in my head, and I hope it stays in my head for the rest of my days.

“You savor it Rog.”

What great advice, Right to the very end, Lynne Dominico was helping me out, giving sage advice and making me a better person. After a few more private words between us that I will not share with you, we hung up. Last call as it turned out.

That’s the story of my first and last conversations with one of the dearest, sweetest people anyone has ever known. So if I may, let me pass that along to you once again and may you hear it in your head when you really need it sometime too, straight from Lynne.

“You savor it.”

Thank you Lynne I will. I hope you savor your life too folks, Lynne would like that. Thanks for that message Lynne and thanks for everything else. You will live in my heart forever, and no doubt in the hearts of hundreds of other people too.

May God bless her sweet, sweet soul.