When I think about the Broatch family, I imagine a lit candle in their backyard in Milford and a kid playing Wiffle ball.
The kid was their son, Britton John Broatch, who seemed to be in great health until one day, at age 25, he suddenly collapsed from a brain aneurysm.
His parents and siblings were so devastated that all they could think to do was take his ashes to his favorite place on earth, Fenway Park, and scatter them there.
I wrote about this in my column May 18. I described how the Red Sox management authorized the Broatches to have their ceremony at home plate, how the grounds crew stopped and placed their hats over their hearts.
This was in 2003. If you are a baseball fan, or a student of history, you will know that the following year the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. You might even make a connection between that historic feat and Britton John Broatch's ashes.
Since the Broatches did their ceremony, as more and more people have wanted to scatter their relatives' ashes at Fenway, the Sox owners have stopped honoring such requests. You have to do it in a secretive way, perhaps leaning over a railing while no authority figures are looking.
The Broatches think this is too bad. "It should be decided on a case-by-case basis," Jim Broatch told me. "The Cubs do it that way."
Broatch think the Yankees' owners should also let it be done, "especially this year." He alluded to this being the final year of the original Yankee Stadium. (As a fan of that ballclub, I can think of few better places for my remains.)
Britton's mom, Cydney Broatch, said those ashes at Fenway are "a representation of Britton being there forever."
When they look around that backyard, which has the bench donated by friends inscribed with their son's name and the adjacent light fixture with the candle they light every night in Britton's memory, they also see him there as a kid, playing Wiffle ball for hour upon hour in the fading light.
In his memory they stage the annual Britton John Broatch Wiffle Tournament. To find out more, go to http://thebjbtournament.com.
It's a charity event, to raise scholarship money in Britton's name. This year it'll be held at Foran High School in Milford, on July 12. You oughta go. You oughta sign up.
Knowing this family, it'll be fun. And as Cydney Broatch said when asked to describe her boy, she simply said, "He was fun. Just fun."