This one’s for Gramps

February 28, was my grandfather’s birthday.  As I train to run my 7th Boston Marathon, the 5th in his honor, it seems like a good time to talk about the man who inspires me to unabashedly ask for donations to raise money for an organization I believe can help those with Alzheimer’s disease and their families.

Felix Iovino was my mom’s father.  He was the father of 5 and youngest of 5 siblings himself.  He emigrated to the US from Italy when he was a boy.  He grew up in New York where he met my grandmother and started a family.  He worked for the New York City Transit Authority when I was a kid, although had a short stint as a pizzeria owner before that.  I begin to salivate just imagining if that had worked out!

Continuing to talk about my favorite bready foods, I’ll make this simile; Gramps was like a good New York bagel, crusty on the outside, but a real softy inside.  He would grumble and complain about pretty much anything.  He would curse in Italian when he was really mad, usually at the squirrels in his yard or his crazy dog, Spanky.  But he would never hesitate to help any of his kids or turn a grandchild off his lap.  He drove us to the airport early in the morning for many family vacations.  When I was in college, he took a “day trip” to Baltimore with my dad to see a weeknight volleyball game against our conference rival.

That’s me with Gramps!

As Gramps got older, we laughed about the list he kept in his wallet with the names of his 10 grandkids.  But that was really the beginning of what would later be diagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease.  I lived in Boston for most of the progression of the disease, but when I did come home for holidays, the changes were that much more noticeable.  It was difficult to watch these changes take place, and even more difficult to see my mom, grandmother, my aunts and uncle deal with the decline of their father and husband.