Daughter's wish for her dad comes true in his last hours

For most White Sox fans, 2010 is turning out to be a forgettable season.

But for 14-year-old Colleen Nowlan of Arlington Heights, it will be memorable for one special game ­- one that enabled her to grant her dying father his wish.

It was a May 8 game against the Toronto Blue Jays, a rare winning game for the White Sox.

Colleen gained a victory that night too. While her 45-year-old dad, Craig Nowlan, and her mom, Regina Nowlan, watched from Craig's hospice room in Skokie, Colleen sat behind home plate at U.S. Cellular Field. Both exchanged text messages as former White Sox slugger Ron Kittle brought down a goody bag to Colleen. It contained a signed photo of Manager Ozzie Guillen and an autographed A.J. Pierzynski jersey. The best part came in the third inning, when the White Sox flashed a scoreboard message thanking Craig for his loyalty to the team. Craig died that same night.

Craig meant a lot to Colleen and her 9-year-old sister, Mary Grace. He became a stay-at-home dad to take care of the girls. He involved himself in their activities, going on field trips with them and participating in the Indian Princess programs. He also got Colleen involved in softball, which she loves.

As Colleen said, he wasn't a father who tried to act cool.

"It wasn't that he did anything extraordinary that would make people remember him, but his presence was there all the time. It was just comforting."

The White Sox also meant a lot to Craig.

So when Colleen learned that her father was certain to lose his battle with cancer, she decided to grant him a dying wish.

Nowlan had been fighting the battle for only seven weeks. Regina said he began feeling poorly in February.

"We were working our way through doctors, checking out different things, and eventually he checked into the emergency room, and that's when they told us."

Doctors were not able to determine what type of cancer it was. It had already metastasized, affecting his throat and abdominal area, blocking major arteries. He was in and out of Northwest Community Hospital so often "they were calling us frequent fliers on the oncology floor," Regina said.

And it all happened quicker than anyone expected.

"The doctors kept saying, 'Well he's young, he has a good chance here,'" Regina said.

When they realized there wasn't hope of recovery and he moved to hospice care in Skokie, the family thought they might have a few more weeks together.

"We certainly didn't think it was going to be a few hours," Regina said.

Colleen said the idea for the wish started "the night my dad and my mom sat us down in my dad's hospital room and told us that he was not going to win his battle against cancer. That they didn't know how long he has, but they know that cancer would be the death of him.

"And I came home and was upset and, as most people would do, was going through all the memories. It was like a slide show playing in my head."

It was then the idea dawned in her head. "My dad was a selfless person. Everything he did was not for him. It was for someone else. He was always putting people before him. I never really noticed that until then. I wanted to do something big. I was just thinking of things that I could do. And the one thing that I really wanted to do was get a White Sox player to meet him. Because he was one of those guys who would sit at the television and scream at the manager."

At first she went to the White Sox website and e-mailed her request. Then she went to Oprah's website and did the same.

"I knew the chances of getting a response or someone even reading the e-mail was very slim, but I figured it was better that than not do anything," she said."The next day I was with my mom in my dad's hospital room and told him about it. And he was so happy. His smile was so big. He was asking me to tell him all the details that I could."

She also started a Facebook group that grew to more than 300 followers.

But where she ultimately found success was right in her backyard. Colleen's softball coach, Jeff Bergman, whose brother Dave played on the 1984 World Series champion Detroit Tigers, knew a White Sox coach.

Regina said Jeff Bergman said, "I'm going to do this for you. I'm going to make this happen."

By then, time kept Craig from meeting with a member of the Sox, who were about to embark on a road trip, but they did get Colleen to the game.

As Craig received the text messages from his daughter, he said he wanted to be buried wearing the Pierzynski jersey. He took a turn for the worse around the eighth inning, and Colleen, who was attending the game with her sister, aunt and uncle, hurried home.

Regina said, "Even that last day, when we were doing the texting back and forth, he smiled and he actually said to me that it worked out, that it was a better way for the wish to work out, because he saw how happy she was in going to the game and being able to meet people. So he was even more happy that it turned out that way. Which was very Craig-like."