My Uncle Ed passed away last week.
He was my uncle in that vague Italian sense of someone who is related to you and older than you are but working out the actual degree of relationship would take too long to explain and wouldn’t matter anyway because Uncle will do just fine.
He and my Aunt Rita were together since the late 1950s – he was part of that original group that centered around my mother’s extended family back when they were all in high school, a group that also included my dad. Rita and Ed were married not long after that – before my parents were – and for most of my early life they lived about thirty miles away in one of the northern suburbs of Philadelphia. Oddly enough we didn’t see them very consistently – we’d go year or two without visiting and then there’d be a rush of visits and then the cycle would start over. I’m not sure why. We always enjoyed the time spent together.
He was my uncle in that vague Italian sense of someone who is related to you and older than you are but working out the actual degree of relationship would take too long to explain and wouldn’t matter anyway because Uncle will do just fine.
He and my Aunt Rita were together since the late 1950s – he was part of that original group that centered around my mother’s extended family back when they were all in high school, a group that also included my dad. Rita and Ed were married not long after that – before my parents were – and for most of my early life they lived about thirty miles away in one of the northern suburbs of Philadelphia. Oddly enough we didn’t see them very consistently – we’d go year or two without visiting and then there’d be a rush of visits and then the cycle would start over. I’m not sure why. We always enjoyed the time spent together.
Uncle Ed and Aunt Rita
at my parents' wedding in 1963
If there is one thing I will remember most about him it would be his sense of humor. He enjoyed things. He was, for example, the man responsible for the fact that Kim and I shared our first apartment with a giant stuffed tiger (which we named Ed in his honor). We took pictures of it dressed up for various holidays the first year we had it, and I think he got a kick out of that. It later became a much loved plaything for Oliver and Lauren when they were little.
The memorial services will be Saturday, a long way away in Philadelphia in the middle of the semester so I will be remembering him and celebrating him from afar.
If you think of it, raise a glass to a good man who was loved by his family and will be remembered well.
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