http://articles.philly.com/2014-05-12/sports/49773611_1_jake-diekman-nebraska-cloud-county-community-college

The words will overflow the stadium, but Jake Diekman will not hear them. He visited a therapist in Nebraska two winters ago, and it was not until then that Diekman accepted it. The anger of a 20-year-old college kid morphed into the positive outlook of a 27-year-old major-league reliever. "Oh, say, can you see . . . " and this is the moment Diekman treasures. "I talk to her every day during the anthem," Diekman says. "It's like 2 minutes and 15 seconds we have to ourselves every day."

Diekman bought his father a house in Beatrice, Neb., right next to his older brother's. He returns to Nebraska every winter. Sometimes, he talks to a therapist about his family's loss. "You can't hold it in," Diekman said. "You're going to blow up someday." It hurt until Billie's next lesson: Diekman started to appreciate the little things. The game slowed down when he had fun. He invoked his mother's spirit rather than avoiding it. "The drive and determination she had for all the projects she did, how hard she worked, the dedication she had for her job," Diekman said. "It really paid off. It really came to me. I thought, 'If I have a job, I want to put in the time and dedication like she did.' " That is how Billie Diekman's legacy perseveres. It is why a young man from tiny Wymore, Neb., will cherish Sunday's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a baseball stadium in New York with his own lyrics.