I was feeling sorry for myself for being sick with a weird lingering cold, and doing badly in 2 state tournies during that time. But, staying home so much, I at least got at sorting out my old pool mags. Going through them so steadily gave me a new perspective on a scenario I had known about at the time.
In the Dec 1994 Billiard Digest, they had a nice article about Mary Kenniston-Guarino.
I had known her through tournies, and was getting a kick out of the info the article was detailing about her younger days on the road.
At the time that article was written, she was 41, and married to Fred, their daughter Danielle was 2, and they were running their Las Vegas pool hall Cue-Topia. They mentioned 3 tournies she had won over the past years, with 2 of them being while she was pregnant.
Knowing how tough the women's fields had gotten, I thought that was impressive, till I got to my 1995 mags. In Feb 1995 there were 2 tournies a week apart where she had got 3rd place in both, and was ranked 2nd of all the women in sponsor, Gordon's, table run tally.
What followed shortly after those events was her serious illness. I had heard of it at the time, but getting to the 1995 August Billiard Digest, where they explained the seriousness of the situation was stunning. Mary had a sinus infection that went way awry. She collapsed, was taken to the hospital where they did brain surgery, actually removing her brain from her SKULL !!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Still making me teary just typing it.
For 2 weeks she was in a coma/medicated condition, till she awoke and saw her husband, mom and other visitors, and said,
" what happened ? ". She was completely paralyzed on the right side and vision was too bad to read.
Just,, the thing was, I had just read about her in the April Pool and Billiard magazine, being at a tourney in Houston in May. I felt the need to do the math on this. Her last event before getting ill, finished Feb 19th.
She went ill end of Feb, then 2 weeks in hospital, and she was back playing
May 4th !!!!!!!!
I was estimating about 53 days between leaving the hospital half paralyzed, and competing in a major tournament !!!!
Okay, so I felt kind of silly about complaining of my weeks of discomfort.
That is one strong woman!!!
I have got tip my hat to Mary.
In the Dec 1994 Billiard Digest, they had a nice article about Mary Kenniston-Guarino.
I had known her through tournies, and was getting a kick out of the info the article was detailing about her younger days on the road.
At the time that article was written, she was 41, and married to Fred, their daughter Danielle was 2, and they were running their Las Vegas pool hall Cue-Topia. They mentioned 3 tournies she had won over the past years, with 2 of them being while she was pregnant.
Knowing how tough the women's fields had gotten, I thought that was impressive, till I got to my 1995 mags. In Feb 1995 there were 2 tournies a week apart where she had got 3rd place in both, and was ranked 2nd of all the women in sponsor, Gordon's, table run tally.
What followed shortly after those events was her serious illness. I had heard of it at the time, but getting to the 1995 August Billiard Digest, where they explained the seriousness of the situation was stunning. Mary had a sinus infection that went way awry. She collapsed, was taken to the hospital where they did brain surgery, actually removing her brain from her SKULL !!!!!!!!!!!!!.
Still making me teary just typing it.
For 2 weeks she was in a coma/medicated condition, till she awoke and saw her husband, mom and other visitors, and said,
" what happened ? ". She was completely paralyzed on the right side and vision was too bad to read.
Just,, the thing was, I had just read about her in the April Pool and Billiard magazine, being at a tourney in Houston in May. I felt the need to do the math on this. Her last event before getting ill, finished Feb 19th.
She went ill end of Feb, then 2 weeks in hospital, and she was back playing
May 4th !!!!!!!!
I was estimating about 53 days between leaving the hospital half paralyzed, and competing in a major tournament !!!!
Okay, so I felt kind of silly about complaining of my weeks of discomfort.
That is one strong woman!!!
I have got tip my hat to Mary.