January 27, 2013
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The Mick
Today one of my oldest, if not oldest, cousin’s died. How do I not know if he was my oldest cousin you ask? Well let me explain it all to you. You will probably find this amazing as I know I do. See, I’m tied for the youngest of six in my family. My twin brother Mark and I were born in 1975. My mom was the youngest of nine. She was born in 1934. Her oldest sibling who just died about three or four months ago was born in 1921. My grandparents were, get this, born in the 1800s! All four of my grandparents were long gone by the time I was born. But, on my mom’s side it is widely believed that there were 36 grandchildren. My mom’s second oldest sibling was her brother Frank, he was born in 1923 and died in 2009. Well it was his oldest son, Michael or as the family called him, Mickey, who died today at the age of 66. Which means that there was only a 13 year age difference between my mom and her nephew. What is even more weird is that there is a bigger age gap between my two oldest siblings and us then there was between my mom and some of her nieces and nephews! Ain’t that wild?
But back to Mickey. His wonderfully sweet wife called him Mike or Michael and we were sitting around yesterday trying to figure out how he got to be called Mickey. See, I’ve got a theory. See our grandfather was named Michael and we were both named after him. One of my mom’s brothers was named Michael as well (he threatened to kill me once at my Uncle Freddie’s wake………..funny story) but everybody called him Mikey. I think it was to distinguish between him, Mikey, and grandpa that he came to be called Mickey. Of course the ironic part is that well Mikey and Mickey both had their names adjusted, I never did, in spite of being the youngest one of them all. The family still calls me Michael, although most of my friends call me Mike.
I was never close with Mickey though. Even though he only lived about 20 minutes away, I never really got to know him. I got to know his three daughters, who were closer in age to use. In fact, our first cousin has two kids that are older than us. Heck, that is the way it is though on mom’s side of the family. Most of my cousin’s have kids that are older than us. Shit, I’ve got dozens of cousins in California that I have never met. Sad to say but I don’t even know a lot of their names which is probably why I don’t know which one is the oldest. The only thing I know is that Mark and I were the youngest of all of them.
Mickey though was overall a good guy; a good family man. I’m full Italian and those of you who are Italian all have loud and obnoxious family members. Well, this was Mickey. He didn’t talk. He yelled. Not that he was angry. That was just the way he spoke, instead of talking he yelled. He was quite overweight though which probably played a big part in his death. I’ll always remember him though as being loud, but overall pretty nice. I didn’t get to know him very well though, which is pretty much the theme of my relationship with damn near all of my extended family. Nevertheless, farewell Mick.
Comments (4)
I’m glad you have fond memories of him. I think it’s a pretty good theory as to how he got his nickname. I know you said you weren’t close, but my apologies regardless.
@Love_in_102 - thanks. honestly, I don’t know if I have fond memories………….when I was a kid he was just so loud and, well, fat, that he came off as kinda scary. and as an adult, I never had any real conversations with him; it was all just quick small talk at funerals/wakes, weddings, or the very rare party of some kind. actually, I don’t think I could tell you much about him as a person; what he liked, what his hobbies were or much of anything else. i guess thats kinda sad. at least it should be. i dont feel one way or another about not knowing him very well
@heckels - oh, I gotcha. well, with a family that big, what could someone really expect? besides, sometimes people just don’t click, and since you weren’t close in age, it makes perfect sense. I haven’t seen my cousins in years and they used to live like 3 hours from me. it’s kinda sad, but just one of those facts of life, y’know?
Ugh, you were born the year I graduated from high school. Thanks for making me feel extra old tonight. My husband’s brother was 13 years older than him, which makes for odd family dynamics.