Her boys, two burgeoning MLB prospects, worked on their swings. Her husband, one of the top high school baseball coaches in the country, kept a watchful eye. And Colleen Fitz-Gerald, the rock of the family, went for a run, unaware of what lay ahead.She began that day, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, on her usual three-mile circuit around her Florida community, passing a handful of neighbors who knew, loved or leaned on the family. She ended it surrounded by her husband and her boys, lying in a hospital bed, devastating news moments away, as a doctor revealed the unimaginable.Colleen had two tumors in her brain. Later, the prognosis worsened: She had high-grade glioblastoma — an aggressive form of brain cancer that carries a median life expectancy of 18 months after diagnosis.The matriarch of this baseball family — the mom who was always around — is now more than seven months in, unable to watch her two sons live out their dreams up close. Nurses provide care from dusk till dawn. Friends cycle through and offer support. Her husband, Todd, periodically checks the GoFundMe to see if they can afford to keep paying for healthcare costs.It’s getting tight. The nursing team alone costs $12,000 each month. Other medical expenses can run them up to $20,000 in a given month. They are simultaneously grateful for those who have donated to help, a list that includes MLB stars Roman Anthony and Jesús Luzardo, and know they must ask for more help, after dipping significantly into their own funds.Through the chaos, Colleen — who preferred her husband speak on her behalf for this story — is steadied by the TV, waiting for her two favorite programs to come on each evening.6:30 p.m.: Devin8 p.m.: Hunter“I think it helps her —,” Todd Fitz-Gerald began, as he searched for the right words. “I think it helps her keep going.”“She’s so proud of her boys.”On a warm Sunday afternoon last fall, one of the most prolific high school baseball coaches in the country sent his two sons home for the day. Devin, who in two months’ time would head to the Washington Nationals in a blockbuster trade that shipped MacKenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers, and who would soon become a consensus top-100 prospect in baseball, was working on his swing. Hunter, who in a few months would begin the best season of his life in the Seattle Mariners’ farm system, was doing the same.The Fitz-Geralds believe in effort and accountability, and Todd Fitz-Gerald, head coach at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, figured there was no harm in letting his boys go home early. He told his kids he would round up the remaining gear and tidy the field, knowing that his sons would straighten up the house by the time he got home.Colleen Fitz-Gerald would make sure of it.Colleen Fitz-Gerald’s two sons are both chasing futures in the game. (Photo courtesy of Todd Fitz-Gerald)She was the one who drove her boys to visit their grandparents or hauled them off to tournaments in faraway places. When Devin and Hunter came home from their games, she insisted that they did not discuss the results or fret over the process at the kitchen table. If they wanted to build character and set standards, she said, they could do so through their chores and their academics. That was permitted.Devin and Hunter said there is no better mom in the world. Hunter said her smile is warm and contagious. Devin said her steak and eggs, cooked before the sun is up, are perfect. Her approach to life, passed down to the children, is simultaneously family-driven and fiercely independent.“Anyone who knows her,” Devin Fitz-Gerald said, “they love her.”As Todd Fitz-Gerald finished up at the field, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.“I don’t think Mom’s OK,” Devin Fitz-Gerald said on the other end.“What do you mean?” Todd asked.“Well, I’m talking to her, and she’s kind of looking right through me,” Devin said. “She’s not really answering.”Todd rushed home and told his sons to help her sit down and get her some water. Maybe, they figured, she pushed too hard on her run. Maybe a nap would help with the nausea.Hours later, Todd turned to his wife to start a conversation. She began to have a seizure.The rest of the day was a blur, between a rush to grab the neighbors who worked as first responders, to the rush to get her to the hospital, to the rush to get her a scan as soon as possible, to a slow wait until the moment the doctor asked if he could speak to Todd privately.“No,” Todd replied, “I want my boys here, too.”The family, together, learned of the tumors, though they did not yet have a full picture. That came one month later, when they brought her back to the hospital after she began to feel ill again, where a new set of scans revealed that she had brain cancer.