OU’s Clifton reminded of dad by pennies
NORMAN — While Caleigh Clifton rounded the bases in the bottom of the 10th inning against Tulsa on Sunday, her family grabbed each other in the stands, hugging and jumping and screaming as Caleigh tied the game with a two-run blast to keep Oklahoma alive in the NCAA Tournament.
As they stopped to catch their breath, something shiny on the ground caught the eye of Caleigh’s aunt. She bent down to further examine it and when she stood back up, she presented Caleigh’s mom, Marina, with a quarter.
After Oklahoma won the game with a walk off home run two batters later, Marina stopped
Caleigh before the team retreated to the locker room and showed her the quarter.
Instantly, there were tears.
To Caleigh and her family, that little silver piece meant more than an extra 25 cents. It was another tiny symbol that has fallen into their laps at just right time over the last three years.
It was another reminder of her dad.
“That was the anniversary, and it was pretty emotional game anyways,” Caleigh’s mom said. “It was just the same thing that happens all the time.”
And Sunday, the day before the Sooners punched their ticket for this weekend’s Super Regional, it was particularly special. It was three years to the day that Dewayne Clifton suffered a heart attack on the way to his job as an OG&E substation maintenance foreman and died.
Dewayne’s kids teasingly called their dad a tightwad for picking up loose change. Even now, Marina keeps a large container of coins in her bedroom collected during their 29-year marriage. Once, the pair tried to condense the collection into coin rolls, and they filled a shoe box before they could sort the entire container.
Dewayne was known as a blue-collar, hardworking man, who fiercely loved his job and his family. When he wasn’t at work, he spent hours fixing cars, tractors and hay bailers. He spent even more time playing softball and baseball with Caleigh and her siblings.
Caleigh’s always been a hard worker like her dad — it’s one of traits Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso admires in her sophomore second baseman — but after Dewayne’s death, his youngest daughter started noticing change on the ground just like her dad was always picking up.
And it wasn’t just that she’d find coins. It was when she found them.
The first time was shortly after Dewayne’s death. As Caleigh walked across the softball field at Wayne High School to play for the first time after his death, she caught a glimpse of something reflecting sunlight in the grass. She backtracked and searched for a couple moments before spotting a penny.
Ever since, Caleigh’s kept an eye out for pennies and carried at least one with her during her games.
She’ll go to Auburn with two special ones in her pocket.
“I found them at times that I was like, ‘Wow, I needed that,’” Caleigh said. “Those are ones that I’ve kept with me. I’ve found them before a game, and I was like, ‘All right, he’s going to be with me during this game.’”
Caleigh’s not the only one in her family who finds remnants of her dad in times of need.
A year ago, Marina was planning a trip to Scotland for her oldest daughter’s graduation. She was hesitant to leave her other children alone in the States. But she booked the trip anyway.
Soon after Marina finalized her plans, Caleigh went on a tubing trip down the Illinois River. On the way home, she found a coin outside a mom-and-pop shop and brought it back for her mom. It was a euro. “It was just kind of a sign that, you know, it’s OK,” Marina said. “It’s just been a big thing for us the last couple of years.”
While Caleigh always plays with the same two pennies in her pocket, her mom’s collection fluctuates weekly.
During the softball season, Marina keeps all the change she finds during the week with her in a coin purse that also contains the euro and a couple other special coins. On the day of the game, she transfers the coins collected during the week to her pocket and heads to the stadium.
Worried that she won’t find any more coins before the next game, Marina keeps the coins with her throughout the next week until she finds another.
Once she starts her new set of lucky coins, she deposits the old ones in a pink quart jar that sits on her kitchen window.
It’s the same routine she’s kept since she started finding pennies on a travel ball trip the summer after Dewayne’s death, and it’s the same routine she’ll continue this weekend as she heads to Auburn to watch Caleigh and the Sooners take on Auburn in the Super Regional.
“I had the quarter and the six pennies (from last week), and I hadn’t put them in the jar yet, but yesterday, I found two pennies and my sister found a dime and a penny,” she said Tuesday.
Her coin purse is ready to be filled again.
“You never know,” she said, “there may be some more change the along the way.”