I was in NYC for a bit for my uncle’s funeral. I’m home now.
The wake and funeral were beautiful, if those are the right words. So many people showed up, he really touched so many lives. I knew many of the people from being there so much over the years, so it was nice to see some old faces. But there was one old face that “I knew,” but didn’t know.
This guy, let’s call hm Ricky, was at the wake and the funeral and he was sitting at our table at a restaurant after the funeral. There were many people present at the restaurant, and I didn’t know them all, but since he was sitting with the immediate family, I wondered who he was.
I asked one of my cousins and he said, “Oh, that’s my mother’s old boss.”
His mother, my aunt, passed away a few years back, but for so many years she worked for Ricky. I heard his name 1000 times, she always talked about him. He was much younger than my aunt who was the office manager, so she treated him like a son, she was a mother figure to him. I remember hearing about his exploits and non-exploits from when Ricky was a young guy.
I yelled out to my cousin, “That’s Ricky?” I was excited. I finally saw the man who was talked about so much. It was like a tv show where there is a character mentioned all the time, but you never see them, like Vera, Norms’ wife on “Cheers,” or Niles wife Maris, on “Frasier,” or Ugly Naked Guy on “Friends.”
I ran over to him and another cousin asked if I wanted to be introduced, which of course I did. I told Ricky how I had heard so much about him over the years, all good. I told him how much my aunt loved him and always felt he was one of the family and I went on and on. It was like meeting a favorite rock star or movie star. It was so nice to put a face to a name.
Not surprisingly he was very quiet, and mild-mannered, but he enjoyed our conversation and was very friendly.
I noticed over the long luncheon, that a couple of others did the same thing when they heard that that was Ricky. We all gushed over him! A little gray haired man sitting in the corner.
As he was leaving later on, I went up to him and shook his hand and told him it was a pleasure meeting him. I said I hoped we would meet again soon. He said, “Hopefully, under better circumstances.” I agreed.
It was a real pleasure meeting him after hearing about him and his life for so many years, putting a face to the name.
Till next time . . .
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