Daddy, make a picture

The eulogy my cousin Paula gave at our Grandfather’s funeral.

That™s Our Papa

Papa Harry lived to be 99 years and 7 months old. How lucky a man that all but the last five months was healthy? How lucky a man that he had a loving wife of 63 years, two beautiful daughters, 5 fantastic grandchildren, and 6 spectacular great-grandchildren? How many men could be so lucky in their lives? Only our Papa.

Over the course of Papa™s life, truths became stretched and facts became exaggerated. We all know that longevity runs in the Bereck blood, but how long did his mother really live? And just how old were his grandmother and great-grandmother when they died? Will we ever know the truth or is really old good enough?

The subject of twins is another controversy. As both Andrea and David can attest, they truly do run in the family. The real question is how many sets of twins did his grandmother have? Didn™t the numbers change with each telling?

The other big mystery to me is just how much of New York did Papa really build? I know there were the rides at Coney Island, but which skyscrapers did he work on, and did he really build the Brooklyn Bridge? I guess the older he got, the more buildings he built.

Papa sure loved his family, although no one came around anymore because they were all gone “ his brothers, cousins, aunts and uncles Never mind his current family “ daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren that visit as often as they can I™m so lonely, he would tell me.

Our Papa loved our Nanny. The memory of them dancing at David and Sue™s wedding will long be etched in my mind. He missed her terribly. So he found himself a girlfriend or two. It didn™t matter if they were married or no, he wanted the companionship that he was missing. He is missing Nanny no longer. They will dance together again.

That™s our Papa.

Yes, later in life he developed a taste for married women. And certain truths became stretched beyond all possibilities of somehow being connected to anything resembling fact. But that was our Grandfather.