Toritto – A Life In Pictures – #16

Dulaney Valley Cemetary

And so we arranged a funeral and buried our almost ten year old second son in our local cemetery in the pouring rain with the final services held under a massive tent. We went home to a place now somewhat quieter and tried to explain to our 8 and 5 year old daughters that Michael would never be coming home.

My wife JoAnn, in deep depression and used to being a full time care giver, now felt she had nothing to do.  The girls were in school and it took a time for her to smile again.

Months later we offered Michael’s old room, which was larger, to Pam.  She simply shook her head and refused to move into it.  It was almost a year before she agreed.

Meanwhile, JoAnn’s parents retired and moved to the west coast of Florida where I now live.  My mother-in-law had brothers and sisters in the area who had previously retired and relocated here.  My sister-in-law and her husband would follow eventually upon retirement.  I was still in my early forties, had years to work and our annual trek to Florida and Orlando became a vacation staple allowing us to see family and for the kids to do Disney.  

And so we took the girls to visit Nana and Poppa.  Every little girl had the Dorothy Hamill at the time.

From Nana’s house we would drive the 70 miles to Disney and Universal theme parks.

Toritto in his vacation hat worn ONLY  in Florida with Pam on the carousel.  

And as they and we got older we settled into life in Maryland with once or twice a year trips to Florida to see family and take vacation.

Toritto at Universal Studios in 1990. I was 47.

JoAnn, now in her 40s, totally relaxing at her parents home in Florida.  She had buried two children.

We got a dog, a wire haired Dachshund and named her Millie.  She was with us for  more than a dozen years. Pam got a love bird.

Pam decided she was a princess and a princess had long hair.

We were big on Halloween

and as Toritto reached his mid-forties

and Pam was in her Vogue-ing stage

as Marie left middle school

and prepared to enter high school

the very biggest wolves of Wall Street were howling outside the company door.

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