With both my father and my grandfather gone from the world now, Father’s Day is just another day on the calendar from here on out. However, it’s also a good day to take a moment to remember my father. The easiest way to do that is to take a look at the memorial website that I created when he passed away. It’s a static website (unless anyone submits new memories to be posted) that remains as a tribute to to him.
The site can be found at emilgatti.com.
I work in the technology industry and am very aware of the global reach of anything I put on the internet. However, I’m still overwhelmed sometimes by the people who find my website and get in touch with me.
Today was one such day. Father’s Day is always a little rough, and I suppose it always will be. This year’s was brightened a bit by a random contact from one of my dad’s childhood friends via the site I created shortly after my dad died, emilgatti.com.
One reason I study genealogy and history is that I feel like you can connect to people who are gone by learning the details of their life. Being contacted by a random person who knew my father when he was 13 and having her share a few memories from that era makes me feel like I connected with my dad in some small way.
You can view what she wrote at emilgatti.com/memories. It’s the last entry at the bottom.
Earlier I posted this photo via Instagram with the comment “My dad would be very happy my St. Patrick’s Day dessert features orange icing. Chocolate Orange Guinness Cake.” I thought it was worth expanding into a blog entry with a better explanation.
First, as the caption states, it’s a Chocolate Orange Guinness Cake with Orange Buttercream Frosting and it turned out delicious. I chose it based on the fact that it contained Guinness therefore, it went well with my traditional feast of corned beef and cabbage with potatoes. However, after I began making it, I realized that my father would be very happy about this cake. Not because he had a sweet tooth (he did) or because he had some affinity for Guinness (he did not), but because the the orange buttercream was orange in color.
You see, my father, being 100% Italian, was the only one in our house who had no Irish in him. As such, he jokingly rebelled against St. Patrick’s Day and everything green. When we made desserts that were died green, she insisted they did not taste as good as their naturally colored counterparts. He was known for wearing orange on St. Patrick’s Day just because he could. On years when he made a concession such as wearing a green tie to work, he would also sport the pin my mother gave him which featured his favor orange cat, Garfield, saying “It’s St. Patrick’s Day, big fat hairy green deal!”
So, consider consider this cake an unintentional nod to my dad and the holiday he felt came one time too many each year.
It doesn’t seem at all possible that more than 6 months have passed since the death of my father. I’ve created memorial pages on my genealogy site for other family members, but I felt like I should make something more substantial for my Dad. What started out as a page on my family tree site has slowly evolved into emilgatti.com.
Please feel free to visit and take a look at the photos, stories, biography, etc. Then if you have anything you’d like to add about my Dad, please submit it by using the links on the site. I know that there are more stories and details to be added, but I rely on the the people who know them to share them.
Go to www.emilgatti.com for info.
Words can’t even begin to tell you how difficult the past three weeks has been for my family and me. It has only been made easier by something equally indescribable. That is the overwhelming support that we’ve received from family, friends, coworkers and even folks who never even knew my father. Cards, flowers, gifts, phone calls, e-mails, dinner invitations, visits are the tangible items that we’ve received, but what we’ve really received is kindness, love and comfort.
We’ve mailed out over 100 thank you notes, but no greeting card can truly convey how thankful we are for the outpouring of support that has been bestowed upon us.