I've known him always as my cousin Rod who was a few years older than me and grew up next door on a street with three houses of cousins and our Irish immigrant grandparents so was known locally as Lally's Alley. We spent so much time in each others houses the cousins on my street felt more like siblings and Rod was the big brother (my actual big brothers were in their teens when I was born).
Rod was my hero when we were kids . He was so cool in the early 1950s in his black leather jacket (I saw photos of him in it at one of our Lally clan reunions but haven't seen them since), and when he got stabbed in a fight at a drugstore soda fountain and refused to tell the cops who did it (and we had cops in the clan) and had his arm in a sling for a while,
And then he got kicked out of high school for something you wouldn't today and he and his girlfriend Paula got married and he went to work at the A&P at the bottom of our street and eventually moved further South in Jersey where they had a bunch of kids and a wonderful life until Paula passed and then he met Cathy and continued to have a wonderful life.
As has been said by those who were closest to him, like his son Richard, for Rod the glass was always 3/4 full. Thank you for being an exemplar of joy and for always making me feel loved Rod.
[photos of Rod with his actual siblings and with his widow Cathy, deepest condolences to you all and to Rod's kids and grandkids and great grandkids.]
