misstyrios

My weekend in NYC started off great. I saw my friends, I walked through the whole city, I got to see John triumphantly run the Olympic Torch in Central Park. But then late Saturday night I got a message from my brother. I knew something was wrong because my brother never sends me text messages, and he spelled out my entire name, which isn't quick and easy. I was standing in the middle of Bleeker St, just having emerged from a comedy show, and he told me that my grandfather had died. The night before Father's Day, the night before his retirement party. I just remember crying and crying and crying. His health had been fragile for a few years now, but there was no preparation for his death on this particular day. I have to keep remembering that he had, as my mother said, a remarkable life. He was more than 80 years old, he and my grandmother were married for 60-something years. He had 8 children and 21 grandchildren, all of whom he knew well, all of whom adored him. He was a World War II veteran, and a CPA who ran his accounting business literally until the day he died. When I settled on which law school to go to around this time last year, he told me that - way back after the War - he had been accepted here too. He was prepared to go, but ultimately decided that he could get his CPA degree faster and begin earning money for his already quickly expanding family. He was witty and hilarious, he loved football and the ocean. I will miss him terribly, but I'm lucky to have known him for as long as I did, lucky to have grown up nearby, and to have been surrounded by such a loving family.

I think I will still be going to the Burlesque show tonight. I have been looking forward to it and getting out will probably be good. The wake is going to be on Wednesday and the funeral on Thursday - there's little point in eschewing everything in preparation for that. So I will see many of you tonight. I can't promise to be in the best spirits, but I will try.