Daddy was a quiet man, he had a genius I.Q. In fact he did the New York Times crossword every day in ink. He was also a wonderful musician. He played in the Army band, then in a one of the big bands of the 1940’s. Daddy was born in New Castle, PA. the youngest of 7 children. He lost his father when he was only 7 years old. Every morning no matter what, he and his mother would go to Mass. His mother was born in Italy and could not speak English. At the age of 17, his mother started getting sick, one afternoon he was sitting by her bedside, reading a book, and he heard a noise. When he looked his mother had died. Daddy never got over losing her.
He joined the army right after that. After basic training, he was transferred to the DeRidder Army Air Base. He often told the story of the first time he saw my mother. They had just pulled into the train depot and gotten off the train. He told his buddies, let’s go in that café and get a cup of coffee. When he walked in, Momma was behind the counter. He knew from that moment on, she was the one. They were married March 21, 1944.
Daddy never complained about sickness in any way, all he ever did was work. In fact he waited until he was 75 to retire. Then he took a part time job, just to keep busy. It was at that job, he had his first stroke. He came back from it really well, but was a bit slower afterwards. During all of our troubles during hurricane Rita, he hung in there, as soon as we got home, he had a massive stroke. This one, he didn’t come back from so well. In fact he was never the same mentally. After momma died, daddy would often talk of her as if she was still here.
About 7 months after momma died, daddy had his 3rd stroke. This one really affected him mentally. During his stay in the hospital, they found that he had throat cancer. All the doctors decided that he would not be able to handle any sort of treatment. As his doctor told me, it’s not the quantity of life that he was concerned with, it was the quality of life. So they sent him home with Hospice. He did pretty good until the beginning of this year. His mind was just gone, he would yell and chase me with brooms, but I know it wasn’t really him doing all of this. In late may of this year, he could no longer speak and the cancer had spread to his brain. By the middle of June, he was in a hospital bed here at home, and could no longer walk, due to the cancer in his brain causing him to have seizures. On fathers day June 21, 2009 Daddy took one last breathe and reached for the ceiling, He was gone before his hands were back at his side.
I miss my daddy, but I know he is where he wants to be and he is happy with momma and reunited again with his beloved mother.
