Spirits of Brooklyn Past

My husband, Joey and I planned a quick overnight trip to Tampa (we live 6 hours away) to see one of his favorite comedians, Fred Rubino.  The reason my husband loves him, besides the fact that he’s hysterical is that he’s a Sicilian from Brooklyn.  My husband is a Sicilian from Brooklyn.  Fred also does cooking videos on Facebook where he makes Italian dishes and his wife, Christine films him.  It’s dinner and a show!  Well one day, Joey got inspired. My husband, who never cooks, made me dinner one night - all by himself!  It was FABULOUS! (I need more of that in my life!)  So this is what brought us to Tampa.  It was going to be a quick ride down on Saturday and home on Sunday.  Or so we thought. 

We took an unexpected detour.  Joey’s first-cousin, Lisa lives about a half-hour from there.  She invited us to stop by on Sunday, so we did.  We stayed for dinner which was Italian, of course.  Lisa is the daughter of Joey’s mother’s younger brother, Frankie.  But Frankie’s story is a bit sad.  He married Rebecca and they had 2 children together.  In the early 70s, they decided to move to New Jersey.  Joey remembers helping pack up the car when they left Brooklyn.  Frankie wasn’t feeling well but they were in the middle of packing a house and moving, he pushed through.  Once they got to New Jersey and started unpacking the house, Frankie wasn’t feeling any better.  He went to the hospital because he was getting worse.  Frankie never came out.  He died at 27 years old.  The family was in shock.   Rebecca was suddenly a widow with two babies.  Lisa was only 1-1/2 years old and her younger sister was 6 months old.   Rebecca eventually married again a few years later to a wonderful man named Bud.  He adopted Lisa and her sister and raised them as his own.  Bud was also there this weekend.  Very sweet man!  Rebecca passed away four years ago this coming June at the age of 65.  

We got to talking about genealogy (this should not be surprising to anyone who knows me) and Lisa said that she has her parents wedding album, which she pulled out.  Joey looks at the cover of the album and the date says February 25, 1968.  WAIT!!!  What’s the date?? OMG, it's February 25, 2018.  EXACTLY 50 YEARS!!!  Not only that, but the invitation is in the back of the album and it was even down the HOUR that the album was pulled out that they got married when the album came out!  Joey is the only one in that room who was at Frankie & Rebecca’s wedding (he was the Ring Bearer).  

The Lentini family.  Joey is the little cutie pie in the dorky shorts.

Sometimes you are in the exact place you need to be at the exact moment.  This was not a coincidence!  We weren’t supposed to be there.  No one had any idea that it was Frankie & Rebecca’s 50^th anniversary.  What are the chances that their wedding album was pulled out at that exact time on that day?  This was a sign from Frankie & Rebecca letting us know that they are still with their children and grandchildren.    Oh and the comedian, Fred Rubino, I mentioned in the beginning -  he grew up Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.  Guess where Frankie grew up?  Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.  See how it all ties together?  They give you signs.