I'm catching up on a few days' worth of blogs today. We got a call from Mike's brother at 6 a.m. this morning, and I knew what John was going to say. Uncle Jimmy passed away last night, in his sleep.
Yesterday, Mike and John went to visit him at the nursing home. Most times they have visited lately, Uncle Jimmy wasn't even awake and aware. But yesterday, he was talking to them and even asked for some cake. Mike got him a sticky bun from the vending machine and some coffee. They took him outside to enjoy a rarely beautiful, warm Fall day. It was a very nice visit, almost as if Uncle Jimmy knew he was leaving us and wanted to say good-bye to the two people who have cared for him the most.
The wake is tomorrow evening, only 2 hours. Some of the family was estranged from him (I think I posted about that before) and some are too far away to get here. He is being interred in a vault with his sister, Rosie. The funeral is out by John's but the vault is in Long Island City, so it's a good thing we're going there on a Saturday. I can't imagine traffic if we had to wait until Monday!
Jimmy's real name was Vincent. His mother did not speak English and when she said "Vincent" it sounded like "Vee-Jim," which eventually became Jimmy.
He is the last of the Pastore siblings, which included my father-in-law, Mike. I'm pretty sure he served in the US Army during World War II. He never married and worked for many years for the New York State Racing Authority. He was a good, nice man and we will miss him!
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