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| Monday, April 3 | |||||
MONTREAL -- Anticipating a festive atmosphere for their
season opener Monday, the Montreal Expos instead learned Monday
that the wife of reliever Graeme Lloyd had died after a 14-year
bout with Crohn's disease.
Cindy Lloyd, 26, died in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., from complications resulting from the abdominal disease. There was a moment of silence at Olympic Stadium before Monday night's game against Los Angeles. Graeme Lloyd is on the 15-day disabled list with tendinitis. He remained in Florida when the team broke camp Saturday. "I didn't know that she was sick," Expos catcher Chris Widger said. "They let the ownership know that she was sick, and that's all. "That's why it was even more of a shock to the rest of us that something like that happened because we had no idea. That's just not something that you want to hear when you get to the ballpark." Widger's 34-year-old sister, Toni, also suffers from Crohn's disease. "It's a reality check because you don't expect something like that to happen," Widger said. "You know it's a bad thing and I guess after seeing my sister deal with it for so long, it's just part of the background, you get used to it, you get numb to the whole thing. This reminds you of what can really happen." The news surprised Dodgers outfielder Shawn Green, who played with Lloyd last season in Toronto.
"That's a shocker," Green said. "She was a great lady. She
was always outgoing and liked to laugh a lot and have fun. I knew
she had a condition but I didn't realize it was as serious as it
was." | ALSO SEE Expos strike last-minute deal to be on French-language radio |