Oh Brotherly Love!

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There's no way of knowing how a book signing appearance is going to go. Through the years I've learned to accept that the people who gather to meet you may see things through a different set of eyes and its best to go in with little in the way of expectations. The worst is when they don't show up at all!

Oh Brother! I should have known that making appearances for the book about Jeff's life would be a complete and utter love fest.

Today I met with a group of women at the Carnation Apartments through the Southtowns YMCA. My wife always refers to the women as my groupies. I tell you one thing, they always feed me!

Many of the women had read the book a couple of times, and all had a list of highlighted items and questions. To a person, they exclaimed that they absolutely adored Jeff and the way that he lived his life.

Me too.

The questions of Jeff's life centered around love, faith, family, friends and laughter.

In other words they heard the message loud and clear.

And a funny thing happened. With tears in their eyes they each lined up to shake my hand and tell me that they learned a lot about themselves by considering Jeff's life.

"It's not about money or grudges or any of the petty crap we worry about," one woman said. "It's all about celebrating the days we have and making the most of every minute. It's about love, pure and simple, right?"

Absolutely right.

"You should be famous," another woman said.

"I am in my house," I answered. "And Jeff should be famous, not me."

I headed out to my car. It was a lunch signing and a Oprah style question and answer period. I enjoyed every second of it.

We were talking about family, and pasta and practical jokes.

As I left the building, I looked to the sky, and I thought of my brothers and sisters and my brothers and sisters-in-law. I thought about all the love we have shared through the years.

It was dark, cloudy, and threatening rain...again.

Inside the sun was shining bright.

Corinne, Chucky, John, Dana, Jim, Jeff, Lynn, Carrie, and Pops, Lorie, Mike, Carilee, Jim, and John.

One after one the names filtered through my mind.

"Thanks for letting us all meet them," another of my groupies said.

It's been my pleasure.

Comments

jim said…
Well said Cliff. I don't know how you can talk about Jeff and Dad without breaking apart....You talk about how strong John and myself are...I really think you are the strongest of all of us ( even though me and John would beat the shit out of you) but you get what I am saying ..I am sure. Jeff and Dad would be proud...and you know we all are. Love you brother.
Jim---No shit---the word verification to send this is lardsib ( thats how its spelled...almost as if it was meant to be...get it??---you fat(lard)---me (sib).
04 May, 2011
jim said…
Well said Cliff. I don't know how you can talk about Jeff and dad without breaking apart...You talk about how strong John and myself are...I really think you are the strongest of all of us(even though John and I would beat the shit out of you), but I am sure you get what I am saying...I am sure.Jeff and Dad would be proud..as you know we all are.Love you brother.
Jim----No shit..the word verification to send this is "lardsib" ( thats how its spelled..almost as if it was meant to be..get it?? you fat (lard)..me (sib).
04 May, 2011
Cliff Fazzolari said…
Jim...all of us together provide the strength...the world deserves to know of Jeff, Dad and the way we all stuck by each other, knowing what really mattered. I'm just the spokesperson to carry their message. Dad and Jeff were the stars in living life...we all will honor what they did every day by being there for each other...and for the record, Carrie and Corinne can kick my ass too. I live with my shortcomings.
04 May, 2011
Corleone said…
....don’t forget that!
15 May, 2011
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