I just received this Christmas card today (see pic above).
It reminded me of when I was a kid and my Aunt Anna's Christmas tree and where she would place it in her house (in my hometown of Rochester, NY)...how she would place the tree in the corner...near her winding stair case.
Just like it's shown on this card.
Our family (50 plus aunts and uncles and cousins and friends) would alternate celebrating the Holidays at her house, or on Erie Street (where I grew up).
I always perceive such awareness as a "sign" of some sort.
In this case, I'm perceiving this sign as a message from Aunt Anna...now in Heaven...from where she's sending me a "Merry Christmas Hello!"
May each of your Holiday memories be as bright...as this message...and this tree!
My parents, shortly after they married...in 1953
Frances Mary Turri and Herbert Pompeii Pilato, in 1953, shortly after they married.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Happy Birthday, Mom.
You would have been 94 today on Earth, but now you're immortal in Heaven.
Love you forever!
HJ
You would have been 94 today on Earth, but now you're immortal in Heaven.
Love you forever!
HJ
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
How Just $7.00 Changed My Mother's Life
My Father (Herbie Pompeii Pilato) died of lung cancer on April 6th, 1995, and my Mother (who would have turned 93 on November 4th) followed him to Heaven on May 5th, 2008 (after being challenged by dementia and heart disorders).
After my Dad left this world, it was rough road for my Mom. They were very close, and she was very dependent on him (as she didn't drive, etc.) So I tried to do the best I could for her, even once attempting to move her to LA with me (to disastrous results).
But once she was settled back in Rochester, New York she became a member of the Pinegrove Senior Center in the suburb or Irondequoit, New York. And every Monday through Friday, from June 1999 to nearly the day she died, my Mom enjoyed that Senior Center.
In all, it cost her about $6.00 a day - a price that included lunch and service for the van (that picked her up and drove her home).
So, thirty bucks a week for a senior's regular activities wasn't bad at all.
In addition to enjoying a nice daily lunch at that simple-treasured Senior Center, my Mom also played cards, went on picnics, and played bingo. She especially loved the bingo. A whole lot.
I never realized how much really.
Until, one day, when I started giving her "extra" quarters with which to play the game.
Not a lot of quarters. Just seven dollars worth.
Not ten.
Not nine.
Just seven.
Every other day, I walked into her apartment, and interrupted her daily viewing of Seinfeld or The Golden Girls, walked over to her, kissed her, and asked her to open up her hand.
At that moment, I poured out the seven dollars in quarters.
As I did this, her reaction was one of astonishment. She looked as if she won the lottery or the mega-jackpot in Vegas.
"Oh, Herbie J," she'd say with so much joy, "...what a great son you are! I have to pay you back! I have to pay you back!!"
"Ma," I would reply, "You just go have fun at the Center."
And she did, all the more...with that mere extra seven dollars.
Not a million.
Not a thousand.
Not nine.
And not ten.
Just seven.
Seven.
After my Dad left this world, it was rough road for my Mom. They were very close, and she was very dependent on him (as she didn't drive, etc.) So I tried to do the best I could for her, even once attempting to move her to LA with me (to disastrous results).
But once she was settled back in Rochester, New York she became a member of the Pinegrove Senior Center in the suburb or Irondequoit, New York. And every Monday through Friday, from June 1999 to nearly the day she died, my Mom enjoyed that Senior Center.
In all, it cost her about $6.00 a day - a price that included lunch and service for the van (that picked her up and drove her home).
So, thirty bucks a week for a senior's regular activities wasn't bad at all.
In addition to enjoying a nice daily lunch at that simple-treasured Senior Center, my Mom also played cards, went on picnics, and played bingo. She especially loved the bingo. A whole lot.
I never realized how much really.
Until, one day, when I started giving her "extra" quarters with which to play the game.
Not a lot of quarters. Just seven dollars worth.
Not ten.
Not nine.
Just seven.
Every other day, I walked into her apartment, and interrupted her daily viewing of Seinfeld or The Golden Girls, walked over to her, kissed her, and asked her to open up her hand.
At that moment, I poured out the seven dollars in quarters.
As I did this, her reaction was one of astonishment. She looked as if she won the lottery or the mega-jackpot in Vegas.
"Oh, Herbie J," she'd say with so much joy, "...what a great son you are! I have to pay you back! I have to pay you back!!"
"Ma," I would reply, "You just go have fun at the Center."
And she did, all the more...with that mere extra seven dollars.
Not a million.
Not a thousand.
Not nine.
And not ten.
Just seven.
Seven.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Happy Birthday to my beautiful father....
Happy Birthday to my beautiful, Dad, who passed into the Light in 1995.
He would have been 104 today.
Love you forever, Dad...and Mom, too!
He would have been 104 today.
Love you forever, Dad...and Mom, too!
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
7 years ago today that Mom went to Heaven
It's been seven years since my beloved Mom passed away.
She was a beautiful person on Earth and she remains a beautiful soul in Heaven.
For whatever good that is in me was placed there by God through them.
They always supported every good thing I ever accomplished in my life and career.
As such, I owe them any and every measure of sincerity that I posses - and which I make every attempt to share.
They instilled in me the truest of priorities and humanitarian values.
I'm not always perfect and none of us are - but my parents came pretty close.
God bless you always - "St. Frances of Turri" and "St. Pompeii".
Monday, April 6, 2015
20 years today that Dad went to Heaven
It's been twenty years today since my beautiful Dad went to Heaven.
And I know he's doing just fine - with my beautiful Mom right by his side.
My sister and I (and everyone who knew them) will Love them both forever.
We were blessed to have them on Earth - and we remain blessed to have them as Angels.
May each of you be as blessed with even a morsel of the kind of sincere and pure Love my parents imbued and embraced.
Peace to you all.
Love,
Herbie J and Pam
And I know he's doing just fine - with my beautiful Mom right by his side.
My sister and I (and everyone who knew them) will Love them both forever.
We were blessed to have them on Earth - and we remain blessed to have them as Angels.
May each of you be as blessed with even a morsel of the kind of sincere and pure Love my parents imbued and embraced.
Peace to you all.
Love,
Herbie J and Pam
Friday, June 13, 2014
My Parents were so right - on so many levels.
When I wrote The Kung Fu Book of Wisdom in 1995, I dedicated it to my Dad who, at the time, was dying of lung cancer.
He attained no formal education, and ultimately acquired nothing of what this world causes "secure," but he was one of the wisest and "richest" people I ever knew.
He used to say things like, "Anything tastes good when you're hungry," and "It's all nice when it's new," which are two of his quotes that I included in my Kung Fu Book of Wisdom dedication to him.
But both he and Mom always knew the deal.
They both loved and understood Star Trek, and they both loved and laughed at Seinfeld.
You have to be intelligent to appreciate science fiction and humor.
I remember when I realized just how intelligent my father was. We were watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (which he really did not prefer to the original Trek series; another sign of his intelligence!), and the scene involved Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFaden), both of whom were behaving erratically. At that point, my father turned to me and said, "Is it something in the atmosphere, Herbie J? Is that why they're acting that way?"
I glanced back to him in awe and astonishments and said, "Yeah...Dad. That's right. It's something in the atmosphere."
My father was intelligent after all, and I was the ignorant one for never fully appreciating his or my Mom's wisdom when they're alive. Certainly, in caregiving for them in their later years, I loved and appreciated them as much as I could. I just wished I would have done more of that while they were both healthy and raising me and my sister.
But I know they're watching over me now.
And meanwhile, to this day, I quote both of them, or utilize their insight, even in simple every day ways.
Things like, my father saying that Tide is the best laundry detergent. I've tried them all - and he was right - it IS!
Or how my Mom used to tell me that Chiquita Bananas are the best brand of bananas and she was right: they ARE!
But more than anything, whatever good that lives inside me today, was placed there by Heaven - through my parents.
So, truth is, my PARENTS were the BEST - and remain so - IN Heaven...as my guardian angels, helping me in ways there were unable to do so while on Earth.
He attained no formal education, and ultimately acquired nothing of what this world causes "secure," but he was one of the wisest and "richest" people I ever knew.
He used to say things like, "Anything tastes good when you're hungry," and "It's all nice when it's new," which are two of his quotes that I included in my Kung Fu Book of Wisdom dedication to him.
But both he and Mom always knew the deal.
They both loved and understood Star Trek, and they both loved and laughed at Seinfeld.
You have to be intelligent to appreciate science fiction and humor.
I remember when I realized just how intelligent my father was. We were watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (which he really did not prefer to the original Trek series; another sign of his intelligence!), and the scene involved Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFaden), both of whom were behaving erratically. At that point, my father turned to me and said, "Is it something in the atmosphere, Herbie J? Is that why they're acting that way?"
I glanced back to him in awe and astonishments and said, "Yeah...Dad. That's right. It's something in the atmosphere."
My father was intelligent after all, and I was the ignorant one for never fully appreciating his or my Mom's wisdom when they're alive. Certainly, in caregiving for them in their later years, I loved and appreciated them as much as I could. I just wished I would have done more of that while they were both healthy and raising me and my sister.
But I know they're watching over me now.
And meanwhile, to this day, I quote both of them, or utilize their insight, even in simple every day ways.
Things like, my father saying that Tide is the best laundry detergent. I've tried them all - and he was right - it IS!
Or how my Mom used to tell me that Chiquita Bananas are the best brand of bananas and she was right: they ARE!
But more than anything, whatever good that lives inside me today, was placed there by Heaven - through my parents.
So, truth is, my PARENTS were the BEST - and remain so - IN Heaven...as my guardian angels, helping me in ways there were unable to do so while on Earth.
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