GIANNA'S SONG

I wrote this for Gianna in 2023 for a Christmas present. In 2024, Chris helped me add some strings to it. 

 

Gianna, you just got to see

I’m your father, you can count on me

And sometimes I really don’t know

Just how to let you know

That I will always be your dad

Especially when this world gets bad

Gianna, you just got to see.

I’m your father, you can count on me.

And sometimes I really don’t know

Just how to let you go.

But whether you’re near or far

I’ll always love just who you are.

Gianna, don’t ask me why

But I can’t stand to say goodbye

And while I sit here thinking of you

My mem’ries break my heart in two

And there’s nothing I wouldn’t do

To show you Gianna that I love you.

Gianna, you just got to know

I’m your father and I love you so

And by your side I’ll always stay

Nothin’s ever gonna take me away

Well you be what you want to be

Cause you’ll always be my baby to me

MARCH 19, 2025. WILLIAM, ME, AND BOBBY GO TO THE RIVER

 

SOME PICTURES

Hi. I'm back. I see where my last post was Nov. 23, 2023 and it's now March 11, 2023. I thought I'd just share some pics that popped up in my photos feed and share a few comments about them, in no particular order. Thanks for sharing these with me. Dad.

Note: Today is March 20, 2025, and I just noticed I haven't posted this yet. So here it is. 

Our home. I took down the deck and the screens a couple years ago and restored it to how it was when we moved here in 1994. Bobby is still hanging in there. He's been a very good friend.

A former student from St. Joseph High School in St. Croix posted this several years ago. The year is probably 1982. 

We used to attend Sunday Mass at UOG Campus Ministry. The chapel was a modular wood building and it was very near our first apartment in Mangilao. I think this was the day Christopher was baptized, so that would be February 1990.

2013 at the Mermaid Tavern. Those were certainly good days. All of us loved to go to The Mermaid and hear Timmy play. 

Aunt Loretta found this picture somewhere in Nanny's house and sent it to me. The girl's name is Karen and the priest is Fr. Randy Roche. The location is in front of the chapel at Loyola Marymount University where I attended college 1978-1981. The three of us were running Campus Ministry at the time. Karen passed away in 2021. I happened to be in California visiting Nanny when her family had a memorial service for her. I was invited to attend and saw people I hadn't seen in 40 years. 

 

MARCH 30, 2014

 

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS - 1986

It's not Christmas yet, but we're getting there. 

And as FB likes to do, it throws up photos and memories unexpectedly, and so came up this photo of Timmy dated December 24, 1986. 

Not sure why he doesn't have a shirt on. It was cold there. So it must have been inside. Or maybe it's just dated wrong.

But anyway, the pic and the date reminds me of a short story about our "first Christmas." 

We were pretty darn broke in those days. We had moved to St. Augustine, FL, a few months earlier where I taught at a Catholic high school and we were surviving on a bare minimum. 

Leone had taken a job at local bakery and somehow we pieced life together with our young son who we affectionally called "Timultaneous" after the the famed creation of Paul Keens Douglas, a fantastic Trinidadian comedian and storyteller. 

Well, Christmas Eve came along and we couldn't afford a Christmas tree, not even a fake one. So I cut down a Christmas tree-looking little fir growing in my neighbor's yard and rustled it into our pathetic little duplex. 

I don't think we had money for any lights - just enough for tinsel and tin foil to cover the window so our neighbor couldn't see where his tree went.

I know I have pics of that little tree somewhere, but can't find them. So you'll just have to believe me.

Merry early Christmas :)

July 4, 2011

 

EMAIL FROM DANA, JUNE 2013

Hi!

I'm sitting in SFO eating Clam Chowder. They have wifi and charging hubs here, so I don't mind waiting.

The plane ride from Guam actually passed by really quickly, I fell asleep before we even finished boarding and kept on sleeping for half the flight.

The breakfast they woke me up for was horrendous. And I mean, worse than usual. Makes me sick just thinking about it, but there was a really nice old lady from Saipan sitting next to me.

I don't know if she was trying too take care of me, or me of her, but in the end I filled our her customs form because she couldn't see without her glasses.

She told me I was a very good friend.

Hawaii's airport was gross and primitive, four of us waiting for the SFO flight ended up sharing a power strip that one guy brought because only one outlet was working.

A lady sitting next to me at the gate gasped in shock when I told her you had to pay for the wifi. She said, and I quote, "I guess we'll just eat."

Then she explained that in Hawaii, if all else fails, eat.

I had a half finished burger beside me and realised she was right.

I slept through the entire flight from Hawaii to San Fransisco. I was kind of worried about aneurisms, but I was in a window seat with two 'taller than me' people beside me. They were from Canada, and I didn't want to bother them too much so I only got up once.

Anyway, I'm here now, and in two hours I'll be boarding my next flight to Portland.

It's two and a half hours, so I'm going to run around the airport and try to get my feet from freezing so much during flights.

Ciao!

Dana

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