Mike has always proven his worth as a human being first, a good son and a humanist, having a feeling for others before himself. As his parents, we always encouraged him to do what was in his heart and soul first, because you can't conquer the World without first knowing who you are. To those of us that live in a better world, he is your friend, compassionate and thoughtful, if he doesn't go into some social service for his fellow man, I will be surprised.
As I sat in the audience suffering through a long ritual of speeches and names, I couldn't help but think of my Dad who was very proud of Mike. Dad died in 1991 and had the joy of meeting Mike, who before he died was fed by Mike. Trying to get some solids into Dad, I got Mike to spike the fork on some meat and Dad, stubborn in is want to be left alone about food, took his last bite of real food! Mike wasn't 4-years old yet.
But the moments also held another thought, about Grandma Frances and her arrival in America from Italy as a fifteen-year-old young girl, all alone with her hopes and dreams, her vision for the future and what her offspring and lifeline would carry. I thought of my father-in-law, Jim, who came to America from Ireland as a young man and started his family, and how the graduation was a validation for all who come from immigrants that sacrificed comfort of familiar places to search for a better life in the discomfort of a foreign land and language so that one day, they would have directly contributed to the greatest of America. And they have.
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