In Memoriam: Adella Vincenti, 1925 - 2013

Today is one of those now-rare days when I am literally “between the ‘Burgh and the city.”  I am typing this aboard Amtrak’s “Pennsylvanian.”  We left Downtown Pittsburgh at 7:30 a.m. and should arrive at New York’s Penn Station by 4:30 p.m.  It’s been a beautiful ride with the sun shining and many trees along the route showing their fall colors.

I was in Western Pennsylvania since Saturday for the funeral service and burial of my great-great aunt, Adella Vincenti, who passed away earlier last week at the age of 88 in her home in Burgettstown, PA.

Aunt Della, the window of my Uncle Remo, was a kind and good-hearted woman.  I will long remember her distinctive voice and belief in perseverance.  (When faced with challenging news, Aunt Della would often say with a sense of optimism, “Hey, what are you doing to do?”)

Before the steady and I got married in June, Aunt Della sent us a very nice card and wedding gift.  I’m ashamed that, due to our procrastination, she never saw a thank-you note from us.  It’s a lesson learned on my part.  I hope that, from a vantage point in heaven, Aunt Della knows how much I appreciated her gift and all of her acts of kindness.

May she rest in peace.

No Man

Food for thought:

" ... No man was ever remembered for what he kept. ... "

- attributed to Tim Noble in remarks by Daniel Lerner on Saturday, May 4, at the 11th annual Relay for Life at NYU

Blackbird Has Spoken

Earlier this week, the fiance and I were watching a rerun of "Pushing Daisies" (a series I missed when it aired a few years back).

At the end of this particular episode, the character played by Ellen Greene (famous as Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors") sang the beautiful old hymn "Morning Has Broken."  It occurred to me her soft and sweet rendition would work perfectly as a long-overdue "YouTube clip for a peaceful weekend" in this space.

Peace:

2013

Happy New Year!

It's 2013.  How the hell did that happen?  The years go by in such a blur.

But, God-willing, 2013 should be memorable.  The steady and I are planning a wedding for June in Gotham.

The Los Angeles-based author and blogger Heather King writes beautifully about the passage of time, holidays and the liturgical feasts.  In a post last week, she provided this food for thought:

" ... Just as an alcoholic spends ten, twenty, thirty years trying to re-create the transcendent sense of well-being that comes with that first drunk, some of us spend our whole lives hoping Christmas will feel, just once, the way it did when we were kids. It never happens. That's okay ...

" ... Christmas never feels the same, and yet we're still sad when it's over -- or I am."