I have been obsessing about something since the ballgame. I learned something upsetting yesterday, and I can't put it into words and it's bothering the hell out of me.

We all have people that have come into our lives: Family, close friends, co-workers, acquaintances, friends-of-friends.

The further down the "line of succession" you go, it's more probable that you will know less and less about these people.

When you have season tickets to a sporting event, inevitably you will start to get to know some of the "regulars" that sit around you. Some people climb up the chain a little bit and you actually see them outside of the sporting venue and you become a bit "closer" and you may know them better than others that sit in your section. If you're lucky, you see each other regularly and maybe even travel with them... OK, it may be to another game in another town so you can share your interest in the sport, but it's still up the chain a bit.

Other people you don't even know by name. You know them by seat location, or maybe you've given them a nickname because of what they do during the game, what the wear, what they look like. You may or may not even talk to these people, but you are part of a weird little family that roots for the same team so there's some sort of "connection".

There are other people that are somewhere in between. You know their name, you know some pretty major things about them and their families, but you don't see them outside the venue. Christmas cards, Email maybe.

Now, I'm not going to mention names here, but we had a situation that happened that just rocked our world.

There has been a family that we have known that have had seats near us for as long as we have had our White Sox season tickets. We know the members of the family by their first names. Great family.

A few years ago there was a woman that had joined their group. One of the family members eventually married this woman. They seemed very happy. They had a son and the three of them seemed very happy.

They kid was a hoot. He was still young last year, and we didn't see too much of him. He was great. In fact, I think I posted a few pictures of him in the blog somewhere along the way.

The first weekend games came around this past weekend. The family was back. Minus a few people, but we could understand that - I mean the weather was so damn crappy...

We found out later that there was a reason why the wife and son weren't there.

The husband was out of town around the holidays. When he came home, the wife and child were gone. Packed up and left.

And he has no idea where they are.

What can you say? What can you do? You don't know the "Why?" and you barely know the people, but it still takes everything you know about relationships and flips them over. Suddenly, when everything feels right with the world and everybody is in their seats around you for another year, it's just not the same. It doesn't feel right. There's an emptiness, almost like someone has died - but they haven't. They're just gone. And it's just not the parent, it's the cute kid as well.

And you don't know why. And you sort of can't ask. And you see the pain and hurt and suffering... and yet, you're there for the game.

Everything goes on... but it doesn't feel the same... and it's uncomfortable. You expect things to continue. You expect everyone to be together for the team. And then you have something happen that has nothing to do with sports, but everything to do with life. And you miss those that aren't there and you have this void where you only thought you knew them... and now they're not even there. And the questions come... what makes a person do this? and you have no one to ask...