Rosy Glow – A Lesson in Family and Procrastination

By

Andrew DeMarco

About a month or two ago my wife and I attended what I will call a “tri-party” for one of my golfing companions and his wife. I use the term tri-party because it was a celebration of his and her birthdays as well as their anniversary. Oh, did I forget to mention that my golfing buddy Mark just turned 95! His wife Eva was celebrating her 90^th birthday and their 69^th wedding anniversary. I felt honored to have been invited since I have known Mark and Eva for a short time just over a year, and they thought enough of me and my wife to have us there with their friends and family. Mark and Eva are an incredible couple, and both have overcome what most would say were difficult times. Mark was orphaned at a young age, and it is something he would rather not discuss, and I respect his wishes in this matter. Eva was a doctor and Mark an electrical engineer.  Both lived under Fascism and even under the brutal rule of Tito in Yugoslavia.  In 1969 they left Yugoslavia with the children to start a new life here in the U.S. Eva literally had to start from the beginning since her medical credentials were not honored here, and she had to begin her career all over again. It didn’t stop her she was determined to build a new and better life for her family.

At the party I got to meet their family, their son Mladen and daughter Daniela as well as all their grandchildren and their great grandchildren. By the way, there is another great grandchild on the way. Watching this family together reinforced a lesson I learned a long time ago, and that is if you have the love and support of your family there is nothing that you cannot accomplish. The proof is in the fact that all of Mark and Eva’s children and grandchildren are successful and determined, traits which I can safely assume came from them.

The other lesson I learned was one of procrastination. I had originally intended to write this Rosy Glow right after the party some months ago, but I kept putting it off. The usual excuses of I’ll get to it, I have time all crept in. This procrastination made this a difficult lesson to learn and this Rosy Glow more difficult to write. You see unfortunately Eva passed away and now she will never get to read this and know how much I admired her and her family.  But somehow, I think she knew that already. I can picture her shaking her head not in disgust but in a way that would say see, you learned a lesson now don’t make the same mistakes. Hopefully I’ll put my procrastinations behind me. I do know this whenever I think of Eva and Mark and their beautiful family, I know that it will give me that feeling that Cousin Bob would call that…..Rosy Glow!