Happy Birthday in Heaven, Ralph

Today would have been Ralph's 70th birthday. 

I miss him every day but grateful to have wonderful memories to sustain me.

Here he is with his grandfather, Ralph I, and father, Ralph II, in his grandparents' home in Steubenville, Ohio. 

He wrote on Facebook that this was the last time the three of them were together.

Recuperation journey: Ides of March

This time of year I think a lot about my late father. He passed away on March 11, 1976. 
Born in 1910, he graduated from Hillhouse High School in New Haven in 1928.

He was a Latin scholar in his youth back when the dead language was probably a required course in every high school! Just a guess. 

I try but it's not easy to imagine what life was like back in the 1920s. So long ago!
My father also was well versed in Shakespeare (see what I did there?) and one of his favorite expressions was "Beware the Ides of March," a quote from Shakespeare's tragedy,"Julius Caesar."

The famous term came to mean an unlucky day because the story is that a soothsayer warned Caesar to beware the Ides of March, the 15th of the month, in 44 B.C.
Caesar was stabbed to death 23 times by his friend, Brutus, and others on that very day.

Ironically my father was buried on March 15, the Ides of March. 
Naturally that fact stuck with me all these years. 
And each March 11 and March 15 I pause to remember my dad.

Sharing a special photo on Father's Day

Giving a big shout out today to my cousin, Dennis, for sending me a group photo yesterday of the McDonald family taken on Christmas in 1950. 
I cropped the photo to get a good shot of my father, Donald, who died in 1976. 
He was a wonderful dad, even if he didn't smile too much for the camera.

Ansonia man to receive award for community service

Founder of Prendergast School Dad's Club

Saleh Hanaif

Congratulations go out today to Ansonia resident Saleh Hanaif for being selected to receive a prestigious award next week from the state Commission on Children.

You can read all about Hanaif's honor in this release in the Valley Independent Sentinel.