My friends in organized religion – you got to explain this one to me.

Julie Burnheimer, age 58, wife, mother of four, dies. Cancer. One-year battle.

Lived her life as if she was the After subject in a Before and After graduate school study of parenting styles. Did it all. Packed lunches in the morning. Went off to her hard-charging job at UNUM. Greeted the school bus at various phases of life. Went to her share of kindergarten soccer games; cut up the orange slices and delivered same to coaches; volunteered in K-2 classes; cut up gingerbread men with scissors and construction paper; attended hundreds and hundreds of Gorham Middle School and Gorham High School sporting events; music concerts; and parent-teacher conferences.

Donated blood at Red Cross blood drives. Delivered her plastic bag of 75 bottles and cans to countless bottle drives for this Boosters group or that. Provided mac and cheese and chop suey to endless, important team suppers over the past 20 years. Emailed, phone called, snail-mailed letters to fellow parents, teachers, coaches, and her own kids 14,372 times since moving to Gorham in l985.

And then Somebody Up There decided on Aug. 26 it was a good and wise and fair thing to do to steal her from her family, her community. Ovarian cancer took her while at home in Gorham.

With all due respect to those who often try to explain these things – give me a break.

“Everything happens for a reason,” one mantra goes.

“God only gives challenges to those he believes can handle them,” wise men often pontificate.

“When life closes a door, it opens a window,” many old wives have opined in many Old Wives Tales.

Etc. etc.

Any doubt you had about the satisfaction level that such cliche?s bring is confirmed now, correct?

I knew Mrs. Burnheimer through American Legion baseball. She had three sons who played for the combined Gorham-Scarborough team mostly in the decade of 2000-2010. Ryan, Eric and John.

Julie attended the games faithfully. Gave rides to her kids and their buddies. Brought cases of water bottles on 93-degree days. Always enough for the whole team. Gave encouragement to all players, not just her sons.

But my favorite Julie Burnheimer story? The thing she did once that no parent, in my 35 years of experience of dealing with parents in kids sports had ever done then, nor done since? She offered to sacrifice one of her sons on the Playing Time Altar to benefit a young, struggling teammate who needed someone to step forward for him to play a position he had always wanted to play.

In order for this player to achieve his dream, one of the Burnheimer boys would have to step aside that game. Mrs. Burnheimer on her own realized this fact. She then volunteered to have her son sit down. This is rare to do. In fact, it is just NOT done by players or parents in yuppie communities. People are generally me me me, not we we we.

“I know this other player wants to play this position,” she said, explaining what I already knew. “If you want to have my son sit out the game, I will just explain that to him, and you can help this boy out.”

I remember the act of selflessness that – in this yuppie Little League-parent-driven youth sports culture of the 21st century – Julie Burnheimer engaged in.

And Julie Burnheimer is the one who is “called home?” At age 58? With only part of her personal work done?

Somebody’s got to explain this one to me.

Dan Warren is a Scarborough lawyer who can be reached at private Facebook message at Jones & Warren Attorneys at Law, or by e mail at jonesandwarren@gmail.com.