“REMEMBERING MY NEPHEW JOHN”
…………………..On this day…..January 24th….33 years ago…..at approximately 3:30pm…..my nephew John was tragically killed in a horrific accident on the Throgs Neck Bridge in NY……………………He was 21 years old………………..It is hard to believe he would have been 54 years old!…..I can’t help but wonder what his life would have been like????!!!!…Would he have married, and had beautiful children of his own?….All of these questions that will never have answers…He was truly a GOLDEN BOY……..beautiful from the day he was born….until the day he was taken from us……He never went through an awkward stage….he was always beautiful….He wasn’t only beautiful on the outside….he was a sweet caring young man…..He became a volunteer fireman from the minute he was able to join….He played the guitar, self taught, and was a boy of many interests….He lived with his parents….my oldest brother Mauro, his mom Kathy, and his three younger siblings….Christopher, Jeannine, and Mathew…..He was exactly like my brother in every way, and emulated him in every possible way…..”a chip off of the old block”….They even looked alike….Many of these traits, and habits my brother only discovered after he passed……I remember my brother showing me John’s closet, and discovering how he set it up exactly the way my brother had his…..It touched my brother so much to know how he had quietly influenced his son…….Both were “A” type personalities, and incredibly smart!….He worked with my brother and was destined to take over the family business…..He was starting a recycling division of the company when he passed…..My brother never continued it……..John would come up to my office at Anne Klein with his cousin Mauro [a family name] for a surprise visit……I’d get a call saying my nephew John, and another young man were at the reception desk. I told them to let them in…….,Did he come to visit his Uncle Lou????……NO…..They came to see the MODELS! He loved Cindy Crawford, and thought she just might be “hanging out!”…..He was very disappointed to learn the models only came for special photo shoots or when I was having a show…to which he always came!……His blue eyes were so sad!…..It was so cute to see these very young boys having these teenage crushes on these “super models”!…….The photo of him sitting in the beach chair at the upper right was the last photo taken of him the summer before he died…….There simply are no words, and time has HEALED NOTHING…….Not a day goes by that my brother, and I know my SIL don’t think about their first born…..their oldest son…..I can’t imagine what it is like to loose a child…..especially one that was so adored….especially so suddenly, so unexpectedly….so shockingly!…..I only wish I had more time with my beautiful nephew so we could have shared more experiences and created a million more memories together!……His passing effected the entire family deeply, in ways we will never know about……His is brothers and sister often speak of John………..Chris, second oldest…..once said to me…………..”Uncle Lou….I don’t want to be the oldest now”……………I knew what he meant…..he didn’t want to take his brother’s place…………It’s just so incredibly heartbreaking…..I know that John is with Jac and his grandparents, and they are constantly watching over all of us……He will be FOREVER YOUNG…..and FOREVER IN OUR HEART.
