Goodbye to Our Uncle Bud!

My dad's Uncle passed away yesterday, just 15 minutes after my sister and I visited him at the hospital. He was a fixture at my parents house on our big Italian Thanksgivings every year. He would have been 94 years old later this month, and him and my Auntie Rina had been married 61 years! He was a funny man. Our family has many, many funny memories of him at the Thanskgiving table telling very funny and some inappropriate stories. Always a hoot! Alex and I have been drinking Manhattan's at home in his honor. My Uncle loved his Manhattan's, and Old Fashions, and also his cigars and cigarettes. Would you believe he smoked for about 70 years of his life? He loved to talk to Alex about duck hunting because when he was much younger he enjoyed that hobby very much. I think he liked to hear Alex's stories and live vicariously through him since he could no longer hunt anymore. I really hope I inherit the strong blood from that side of the family.

He was also a Crew Chief in WW2 and some fellow in Denver was making a documentary about his crew. He had interviewed Uncle Bud (a.k.a. Fred, Stag for Stagnaro) already, but is still in the process of editing the documentary. But, we have seen clips of my uncle's interview on youtube already. It will be nice to watch when it airs on whatever channel it will air on.

The picture above is special to me. It was taken last Thanksgiving. That was the oldest living Stagnaro and the youngest Stagnaro at the time, little Dana. 93 years apart! We will miss you Uncle Bud!