Saying Goodbye

November 6, 1924 - November 17, 2009

The Circle of our Lives...

It has been a whirlwind of life and death this past month and with the impending arrival of Christmas and the prospect of happier times, I cannot put off writing this post any longer. It has often been said that life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. But it is also the thread of routine and predictability that keeps me going through most of it. There is a safety and comfort in following the paths we've chosen for ourselves, and most assuredly we will lose people along the way. And though it may have been expected, it still doesn't make it any easier or any less painful.


For the first time in my life, I have lost a person who was incredibly important to me and who definitely helped shape the person I have grown into thus far. My dearest Grampy is gone from this earth shortly after turning 85 (and how at peace I am that I spoke to him that day), but what he left behind are impressions of a life fully lived and mountains of memories for me of times spent at the E. 5th St. house as a child, the cigars he always smoked and the tri-color pens he handed out, the loose change and the scratch tickets, St. Paddy's Day and Castle Island, Riverside Park when we were too young for most of the rides, the threat of getting the belt and separating all of us cousins if we couldn't get along, and most prominently, the last piece of pineapple after dinner. We were such hellions as children, yet he loved us all and I could feel the pride in his heart as I got older and we began to start our own families. His greatest accomplishment was his family and he was blessed to enjoy his great grandchildren for a little while.


It was hard to go home and not see him sitting there in his favorite chair. And though his last few years were not the best for him, his loss is felt deeply by many. Grampy, I will always have two little pieces of you with me wherever I go, and I promise I will take care of them...as if you even needed to ask. Thank you for seeing us safely home, so all your little ones could be together again to say goodbye. Love you and miss you...til we meet again.