Team Hit and Get the Hell Out of the Way

They’ve sported their colors at our family ping pong tournament for two years now, but the “Hit and Get the Hell Out of the Way” duo has been a team for a lot longer than that.

They buddied up early, almost as soon as they met.

My sister Kathy and her high school friends visited me and my then boyfriend Vince at Marquette University back in 1985. They’d come to town to see a Phil Collins concert and Kathy and Vince bonded quickly over his comparative permissiveness and my strong desire not to get in trouble with my parents.

Shortly after that, Kathy enjoyed her first meal with the Biskupic clan and I’ll never forget looking up and seeing my father in-law slide a portion of his meal onto Kathy’s plate. “You have to try this,” he said. “It’s delicious.”

I nudged my boyfriend.

“Look at your Dad!” I said. A renowned germaphobe, Grandpa Vince was so quick to extend a Kleenex to anyone who sneezed I suspected he had stock in the company. His three favorite words were, “Wash your hands.”

And there he was in the middle of a fancy restaurant sharing food with my sister.

“I guess he likes her,” Vince said.

They all did. In the years since, Kathy and Vince have bonded even more over their shared love of sports, non-confrontation and testing my limits. They are the consistent Switzerlands in family squabbles.

Two days after Kathy and Vince partnered up in this year’s ping pong tournament, Kathy headed to Mayo Clinic for one of her quarterly scans. As anyone who has ever been through, or had a family member go through, cancer treatments, those scans can be nerve-wracking.

I have mentioned before that Kathy has been battling an aggressive form of breast cancer since 2012. She has been stage four since 2016. So, each time she goes for a scan we wait for her to text us these words: Root beer floats all-around!

That is code for the scans have shown no additional cancer growth and we’re good to go until the next round.

Vince was the impetus for the root beer float toasts.

In 2016, just after we learned that Kathy’s cancer had spread to her brain, Vince volunteered to drive her to Mayo Clinic to meet with a series of doctors. The prognosis was pretty grim at that point, and some of their appointments were depressing. Vince, having done his research, kept Kathy amused by pointing out the various colleges and mascots associated with each doctor.

Eventually, they met with Dr. Pollock, who told them about the Gama Knife procedure he would eventually perform. “He’s from Pennsylvania,” Vince whispered to Kathy. “I have a good feeling about this.”

Dr. Pollock and the miraculous Mayo team ended up saving Kathy’s life. But, the afternoon of preliminary discussions had been grueling for everyone.

On their drive home, Vince suggested they make a stop.

“Let’s get some root beer floats,” he said.

And, we’ve been toasting with root beer floats ever since.

I’m not a huge fan of root beer floats and I often ask my husband why he didn’t suggest a nice hot fudge sundae to break up that difficult day.

I am, however, a huge fan of Team Hit and Get the Hell out of the Way and I look forward to beating them in the next round of the Kostelnik Family Ping Pong Tournament.

Let’s Go!