Monday, November 18, 2024
/public-file/5983/Ultra/ec9d6579-8ef3-4a90-b802-6518535b6635.jpg
Monday, November 18, 2024
1:16 PM
I was raised from a child by 3 phenomenal women; my grandmother Sophia (Sophie), my mother Eleanora, and my Aunt Eileen. From my earliest memories, us all together living in a 2 family house on Richard Street in Jersey City, to spending Friday nights and weekends with Aunt Eileen & Uncle Frank in Towaco - a weekly migration offloading me from my Grandmother in Boonton where I spent the weekdays, week in and week out. Some of my fondest memories were watching Creature Features, Thriller, and every classic horror movie imaginable, each and every weekend drinking ice cream sodas and munching on devil dogs or white mountain powder hard rolls with butter. Later in life, when my mother traveled away for work or settling on a new location to relocate to, my Aunt Eileen and Uncle Frank took me in as their own - when I was a freshman in High School, and later still when starting work and college prior to my joining the Air Force. They in fact willingly served as my surrogate mother and father on so many occasions, and I still hold them in highest esteem today. Aunt Eileen showed me a higher standard of achievement, and living, with words and actions that branded my deepest core with a willingness to succeed and be successful to my highest degree of capability. Her words echoed and continued echoing throughout my younger days, guiding me and granting perseverance in many of the challenges and obstacles I faced. When I was in England, now detached from the USAF, I didn't want to return stateside until I achieved what she ignited within me. I wanted her to be proud of me, despite my wanderlust in not following the textbook path that was laid before me previously. I wanted to show her, that her words and actions mattered, and molded me into the person I am today. The family bond, and the love she exuded knew no bounds, and the love I have for her is ever immortalized in my soul.
