I'm going to miss Mr. G

I went to a wake in Chicago last night--one of my college roomies lost her dad. He was 88 (she had been raised by her grandparents) and he was such a great guy. I really liked him and I'm going to miss him a lot.

Her family is full-blown Italian (I felt conspicuously curly- and light-haired at the wake!). Her dad was a shorter, gruff-voiced man who taught her how to cook things like pasta fazool (mmm, real food in college!). There were pictures all over the place at the funeral hom (Rago Bros. on Irving Park) and I realized that her dad had looked exactly the same for, like, the past 30 years!

I'll never forget the first time I talked to him. I was a sophmore in college and had just received my new roomie's name in an envelope from the university. I nervously called to talk about what kinds of things to bring to school and she wasn't home, so I talked to her dad.

I now realize that he never did hear very well and the trouble I had on the phone was because of that, but after shouting and spelling my first name about 8 times, I got off the phone and thought, "Oh God--if she's like her dad, this is going to be a really long year!!"

Well, eventually I got to talk to her and she was almost completely normal! On move-in day--when she and Ryan H and I were talking in our dorm room--and we both stopped in the middle of the conversation to yell "Leo-nard Bern-stein!" along with the music, I knew things were going to be just fine.

I'm going to miss Mr. G. He raised a pretty good roomie :)