Down to Florida and back again.

The day after my last June post I learned that my Grandpop had passed away from complications after having a couple of strokes.  It was pretty sudden, but he passed with no pain and my aunt at his side.  It all happened so fast that my mom didn't have a chance to get down to Florida to say goodbye.  She had a pretty hard time with it and I comforted her as much as I could from so far away.  I decided that I needed to go down to Florida to be with my family.  Sydney came along with me and I left the boys at home.  I hated that that was Sydney's first airplane ride, but I'm glad she came along.  She helped to lighten the mood a little bit and meet a lot of my mom's family.  I was also glad that I got to see my family and spend a couple of days with them.  I hadn't seen some of them in 10+ years.  I took a couple of pictures, but definitely not as many as I wished I could've taken.

It was the first time that Papa (my stepdad) got to meet Sydney.  They had fun together.

My cousin, Isabella, playing with Sydney.  Sydney LOVED Isabella!

Papa fell asleep on the couch

Nonna and Sydney

My Aunt Theresa, Isabella, and Sydney

Sydney making silly faces

Me and my Aunt Annette

My Great Uncle Carlo with his great-great niece, Sydney

The oldest and youngest of the Mancuso family right now

(Uncle Carlo is one of my Grandpop's six brothers)

My Grandpop will be greatly missed.  I loved him very much and our family won't be the same without him.  He was a great family man that would drop everything if you needed help.  I never felt unloved by him.  He would make me laugh with his cute little belly laugh where his belly would make his shoulders bounce up and down.  It was the cutest little laugh.  He had such a great sense of humor.  When I was a kid, I would get on the phone with him and he would say things like, "Oh no, not you again." or "Who are you again?  I'm looking for my granddaughter."  I always knew he was joking and as I got older I started doing it back to him.  I think he was a little taken aback the first time I said it to him, but he would just laugh.  

As a little girl, I remember Grandpop being the tallest man I knew.  (My family wasn't very tall...sorry guys)  I always wanted Grandpop to hold me so I could be as tall as he was.  He obliged, and I remember thinking that no one could be taller than my Grandpop (and I don't think he was even over 6').  As I got older, he got shorter as I grew, but I always remembered the times when he would carry me around and spend time with me.

When I went to Miami to visit him and my aunts, he would take me for the afternoon and make me a meal.  I remember going to his little apartment where he showed me how to make pizza (like any Italian man would), and he asked me what I liked on my pizza.  I made the mistake of telling him one time that I liked hamburger meat on my pizza.  (Just a word to the wise, DON'T tell an Italian man that you like hamburger meat on your pizza.)  Grandpop gave me an earful on how that was crazy and Italians don't put hamburger on their pizza!!  He ended up convincing me (as maybe and 7 or 8 year old) that Italian sausage was the next best thing and I haven't put hamburger meat on my pizza since.  That wasn't what Italians did.  :)   

As I got older, my visits with him were filled with time spent on his screened in back porch.  He would sit me down and give me a logic puzzle to solve.  Some of them I could get right away, but others I would spend some time trying to figure out.  He would ask me if I wanted to know the answer and I would stubbornly say, "NO!  I want to figure it out!".  I would eventually give in and he would chuckle and show me the answer.  We watched a lot of David Copperfield together because he had a love for magic.  We also watched game shows...even the older ones they show on the Game Show Network.  He loved things like that.  Crosswords...he was pretty good.  I'm still not very good at those.

We also shared a love for Frank Sinatra's music.  "Old Blue Eyes" reminded me of my Grandpop every time I heard him.  I made him a CD with some of my favorite Sinatra songs.  I found it in his condo after he passed and it made me smile that he had kept it.  My Grandpop wasn't one to keep things unless he loved or needed them.  His life didn't consist of much "fluff".  So it made me happy that he enjoyed my Sinatra CD enough to keep it.

I will miss him so much and not hearing his deep, comforting voice over the phone.  When I would talk to him, he never made a fuss about himself and always wanted to hear about me no matter how hard I tried to ask him about himself.  He would've much rather heard about me, no matter how boring.  He used to tell me that he loved reading my blog and keeping up with the kids.  He would tell me how great of a writer I am (which I think he was just being polite).  So in honor of my Grandpop, I'm dedicating this post to him.  I will always and forever treasure him in my heart.  I LOVE YOU GRANDPOP!!!!

Alfred C. Mancuso

March 23, 1931 - June 18, 2011