This
picture was scanned and sent by email to me that shows my dad in 1941, when he
was 15 y/o. I put it
here to say how much I miss my dad, not just because he always supported me in
anything I ever wanted to do but very much too because he gave money to me and
Michele every time we needed some monetary help, even when we never asked, I
still remember well that every time he came to visit me with my mother. They both
had their pockets and suitcases packed full of dollar bills that they wanted us
to have but didn’t want to use more “official methods” (through banks) in order to save money and to
become too visible.
Every
single house I bought here in the USA was partly paid with my dad’s help and
every time I felt to have gotten in trouble he was always ready to both listen
to me and give me either advice or money, if needed, for example when I was fired
by the Italian company I was working at here in the USA he gave me the advice
to have that company treat my case like it’s normally done – according to the
laws – in Italy.
Since I had
no knowledge of such laws I had to find the way to learn them by myself and
when I felt competent, I hired an attorney in DE who listened to what I could
teach him about those Italian laws and was able to deal directly with the
company’s attorney based in Italy to apply those laws that became worth to me
of one month’s salary for every year I worked in that company.
My payoff
was so large that I was able to give a very large down payment for the lovely
house in NH that gave to me, Michele and my two treasures the best experiences
that are now our most joyous memories.
Anyway ,
getting back to my dad, he taught me by example that nothing is
impossible if you believe in yourself, your abilities and clarity of mind.
He was at
work, far away from where we lived from Monday through Friday, including the
nights – he used to say at a high class hotel that had assigned to him a “special
bedroom”, in addition - given that he was the European CEO of the American agricultural
tractors company Massey Ferguson – he was often away for entire weeks because
of visiting the manufacturing facilities in France, Belgium, England and the
Netherlands.
His trips to
the American headquarters in Toronto were very few and once he took me with
him, I’m not even begin to say here what still today makes me laugh to tears,
suffice to say that we went to a dinner in a home of one of the managers of one
plant we were at that morning and my dad wasn’t too happy with the home-made
food.
At the end
of the dinner the manager’s wife presented to the people around the table what
looked very much like a chocolate cake, therefore my father asked for a very
large portion of that “cake”, given that – this far – he had eaten as little as
possible.
What looked
like chocolate turned out to be peanut butter and as soon as my dad realized
that he didn’t have chocolate in his mouth……no words can describe the
desperation in his face as he was trying to spit the huge mouthful of peanut
butter cake without being too visible.
Thinking
about it as I’m writing it now makes me laugh so hard that it’s difficult to
hit the right key on my keyboard, I call this an “historical moment” in my dad’s
life.
Anyway
since he knew that we all have the soul and told me to be curious to experience
the afterlife (few
years BEFORE quantum physics started to study it) I’m sure that he’s now in heaven with both of
his parents (his
father had died when he was 18 y/o) brother, sister and the plenty other relatives who had me meet for the
major part.
Few weeks
before he died he gave me a very serious talk to let me know that as his son I
made me very proud to be my dad and all I could say was that he too made me
proud to have him as my dad.
Now I’m
thinking that – even if I’ll be around about 30 more years my job to have my
son become proud of me as his dad isn’t going to be easy at all, but now that I’ve
learned to be patient, I’m simply going to wait without pushing on the accelerator
as I always did.
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