This past weekend, me, my sister and hubby went to upstate NY for our cousin Don’s hubby’s Life Celebration, and a celebration it was!! More to come later in the blog post…
Here is all of our extended second and third cousins, aunts and uncles on our mom’s side, we met so many family members for the first time! We had a blast getting to know each other and hearing all of our history, much of which has gotten lost since my grandma has Alzheimer’s and we never learned about our family from her before she got sick.
And here are some of the old photos we got to see while we were visiting…
Our mom when she was 2, the same age as Poppy.
The restaurant our great grandfather owned in Queens, Constantine’s.
Our Great Grandpa in the middle and the little boy to the left as you look at the photo was our Grandpa, Jim, our mom’s dad and to the right of him is Don’s mama.
Here is a photo from Chris + Don on their wedding day. When I lived in NY they would take me out on the town, they were so in love and they would crack me up, Chris was hilarious! He will live on through his family, friends and all his stories but he is deeply missed, life isn’t the same without him.
These two have so many insanely talented friends, many are actors and actresses on Broadway, and they sang Chris’ favorite songs, had us all shout out old songs we liked and created a show tunes piano piece based on the songs we chose. It was nothing short of amazing to watch! All of the kids mouths (along with mine) were just hanging open. Talent like this is lost in today’s time, most kids or younger families aren’t exposed to music, dancing and talent like this! If it weren’t for Donnie and Chris, I may never have experienced it.
David Green, sang “I am What I Am.” He is married to Judy Kayr who is nominated for a Tony for “Nice Work.” I think he should be nominated as well with that voice!
Our cousins put together a piece, “Chris Duffy by the Numbers.” It was beautiful and such a tear jerker!
They have been together for 39 years, yes. 39. But the state of NY only considered them married for 91 days. They are the happiest and most in love couple. They balanced each other, as Don told me, Chris was the flyer and he was the rock.
This life celebration came right after Amendment One in NC was passed. All love is beautiful, important and valid and why NC doesn’t see this is beyond me. To all of our LGBTQ friends and family, we are deeply sorry for the inequality NC has brought. We will continue to try to change it!
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