One of my earliest memories of Hughie was when I was around three years old. My mom had bought a new dress for me, and Hughie had just come home from school. He realized how I excited I was to show him the dress and insisted I turn around several times while he admired it. He then told me over and over how pretty I looked. Silly, but it’s the little things in life that mean so much to a person. I am sure he had long forgotten that day, but I remember it as though it happened yesterday.
When he was a little older, I would see him coming home from work, and I would run down Lincoln Place to greet him. He’d pick me up and swing me around until I was dizzy. I’d beg him to put me down. When I could finally stand I’d say, one more swing, Hughie, please!
I was around nine years old when I learned that soon he would be leaving home to join the army. For several months before that, he would wake me up on a Saturday morning to play monopoly. Of course, he would never let me win. How would I learn? However, when I was losing, he would lend me play money just to keep the game going. (Slow torture, and I can still hear his sinister chuckle as I kept losing.) I appreciated the time he spent with me before leaving for two years which seemed like an eternity. As I said, it’s the little things.
Hughie was a very generous person. He never forgot to send a birthday or Christmas card, always with a little gift enclosed. I later wondered how he was able to afford this while living on army pay of $78 a month.
After moving to New Jersey, Tom and I spent many a weekend with Hughie having dinner at our house and then heading out to a movie. He spent many holidays with us and summer days by the pool.
Hughie was very smart and very methodical with a broad array of interests and knowledgeable on many subjects. Also, he was a very social person who enjoyed a good party and a Lindy Hop.
He loved music and played the accordion. When instruments weren’t available, he played the spoons on his lap while sitting at the kitchen table!
He loved sports and excelled in all of them be it softball, billiards, bowling, darts, etc. He loved seeing his friends from the “9th Ward” and St. Teresa’s where he and our family would attend the annual alumni party and, at times, the summer picnic. And, did I forget, Brooklyn Tech and AT&T?
Of course, he loved everything Scottish and Irish, especially the good jokes. When we were kids our family would go on bus rides to the Scottish games. In later years he would insist Tom and I go with him to the games in New Jersey.
Most of all, Hughie loved his family--all of us, and he would forever sing the praises of Susan, and his children Karen, Matt and Amy and brag of their wonderful accomplishments. He was so proud of them!
Though it was painful for me to see him move from New Jersey, I am so happy that he was able to spend his last years with his children, grandchildren and Susan. I am also grateful to God that his entire family was able to say their last goodbyes to him in Arvada.
While I realize that no one is perfect, he was perfect to me; he was perfect to me solely because he was my BIG brother and my friend, and I will love and miss him forever.
To quote an Irish epitaph:
“Those we love don’t go away,
They walk beside us every day,
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed and very dear.”
GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU, HUGHIE, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN.
Your loving sister,
Irene