The New Addition to the Remodel

His sister Chesca was born close to the time they moved into their newly remodeled house, which made that Christmas even more special. He held her two little hands while she walked from the glowing Sacred Heart to the swinging kitchen door. He doesn’t think she remembers this, but he taught her how to walk.

When he and his brothers picked teams for softball, his team, Blue Socks—literally, he designed the uniforms with blue striped socks—did not include her, which made her very jealous. "Gnilims-peek" was a club including Chesca, Karen, Peggy, Peter and himself that included “Masonic” dark meetings on tires within the helpers’ quarters.

In his quest to achieve architectural greatness, he constructed a tree house that would withstand even the strongest of typhoons. One of the perks to the “tree-top hotel” was a tire swing. For only 25 centavos, anyone could be a member. However, even though she failed to pay, he was the only one to run out when little Chesca fell from this tire swing.

He remembers Chesca using her unending talent for art and craft by borrowing his poster paints to color her hair for a Cyndi Lauper party. She was the hit of the high school party without the use of the more expensive “spray on” color. During this time of their lives, he antagonized her with the demonstration a Coca-cola swap. But of course, this isn’t about him.

Memories are hazy for the next several years (decades). One of the main memories he retains was how her beauty and spunk tortured many men-with-delusions-of-grandeur to be the possible boyfriend. He recollects an expensive racing bicycle being thrown down the pebble wash steps out of one of these rejections. Many BOYS shed tears for her.

When he arrived to the States, Chesca was already here to help. His first memory of her in the States was her DRIVING a SUV from Cleveland to Pittsburgh (“Don’t talk to me!”). Realize, he had never seen her drive before and her stress was apparent. She is known as the great unifier within the family. Even if he did not ask for help, she knew he needed it. Her daughter, Kika, at a very young age, always knew when to call in her sweet young voice (“Hello, Uncle Teddy”) when his heart was breaking from his own child lost. Even today, her kids are his treasure.

So on her 40th birthday, he would like to thank her for her being her in spite of...

p.s. It is 11:00 pm PST which is December 3rd EST...