My 26 Year CML Leukemia Adventure

Overboard. I think that’s what you call it when your home remodeling project extends into the fifth month and way over budget. Yes, we settled on Country Club Drive in April and it was now August. We still weren’t finished with construction and the school year was now approaching. This would be a logistical nightmare at this point. With Nick having to travel to Bensalem and Joe to Doylestown, our mornings would be awful. We were fortunate to have the temporary home in Fort Washington but we were also pushing that invitation. It was time to get it in high gear and get the house done!

Our contractors worked overtime, really my friends, and got us to the point of moving in by early September. Our good friend Vladik, who also lived on the Emlen House estate, agreed to drive Nick to school so I could take Joey to his school for the first few weeks. This was a real help. The move in to our new home would take place in mid September. So much work again but it went well and the finished and furnished house was beautiful. It took a lot of great friends and associates to make this happen and a great job was done by all. We were finally in! A new era for our family and a great accomplishment for Lori and I. It was now thirteen years from my original CML diagnosis and nine years since I started taking Gleevec. A huge life setback overcome. Other than my annual trip to Hanahmen Hospital for bloodwork and visiting Dr. Dave, the usual chemo pill side effects were all that were left of my journey. Let’s hope it stays that way, I can handle that.

Like I mentioned in my last post, Joe would move on and up a level with the Little Flyers. He was more than capable of playing at the next age level and welcomed by his new coach, Jimmy Watson. Jim was a former Philadelphia Flyer and Stanley Cup winner. He and his brother Joe were All Star Defenseman for the Flyers and helped win Philly the Cup two years in a row in the 1970’s. He was a gruff, no nonsense kind of guy and coach. No frills, no BS and no coddling. That was good for Joe. He would have older teammates and less drama. Joe and Jim had an interesting relationship but got along well. Hopefully, the season would work out well and Coach Watson would elevate Joe’s game. We shall see.

Meanwhile, the store was still busy buying gold. An essential piece of our business now since the US economy was tanking more every day. Inflation was rampant and the Stock market was still way down in the dumps. So many investors lost a ton of money. My sales were way down too and the holiday season was looking pretty grim. We would have to weather the storm and hope for better days. As long as the gold rush continued though, we would continue to survive and pay the bills. As far as the home front through the end of the year, all was quiet and we were enjoying the new digs. There was not much to report but an interesting email would come across my desk after the holidays. A proposition of sorts that would require a great amount of thought, discussion, investigation and guts on my part to accept. “Dear Jeff”… it began.

Next up: The Proposition

As the gold rush continued, the store was kept busy everyday. It wasn’t a crazy, tough, had to sell type busy, but a steady stream of eager customers ready to cash in on their treasures. Sales were declining, as predicted, but the profits from the refining made up for it. Even the repair business was taking a hit. Customers would rather sell their broken jewelry at this point rather than pay to fix it. Unless it was sentimental, of course.

Joey was finally castless now and raring to go. It had been five months since he was able to play in a game for the Little Flyers. It was killing him. The time had finally come for him to hit the ice and get back in the game. It was February now and the season was winding down. For the first time in three years the team was making a run for the playoffs. This presented a huge issue for Joe’s coach. Inserting Joey into the lineup at this point became a real problem. Not for the coach. Not for most of his teammates. But definitely for a group of parents who couldn’t imagine him coming back at a time like this and actually being a part of the team. It would be so awful if he let up a goal or made a mistake that ends up single handedly causing the team to end their playoff run. Really? Tough shit kid. Not our fault you broke your arm. Doesn’t matter that you have been a productive teammate for three years now. Disgusting and disheartening. Coach Gregg handled it just right. He suited him up and played Joe the rest of the season. Sure, he wasn’t one hundred percent but he eased back in slowly and gutted it out the best he could. As far as the playoffs… the season ended early and it was a team loss. The whole team. It would be Joe’s last with that team. I wasn’t going to deal with that BS anymore.

While the drama was playing out in the stands and we were going through the motions at the store, we finally sold our house in UM. Lori and I had put an agreement of sale into effect on our new home in Doylestown but needed to sell our current house quickly. It was coming into crunch time and getting really close to where it would be a real problem if it didn’t move soon. Well, BAM! A great offer came in and we were on our way! Settlement would be in April and the preparations were ramped up for the move. The new home in Doylestown was in need of some real alterations and repair though. We could move in and try to go room to room while we lived there or find a place to stay and remodel first. We chose the latter. Luckily, we had a place to stay for as long as we needed on the beautiful Emlen House estate in Fort Washington, Pa. where my father worked for many years. It was a huge home, one of three, on a 150 acre private enclave where President George Washington once camped with his troops during the Revolutionary war. It was beautiful.

Our family held the traditional “Moving” yard sale and packed the remainder of our furniture and belongings into storage. Moving is a real job! Settlement went well, although the owners of our new home were divorcing and the tension in the room was quite noticeable, if not comical. Especially when the wife forgot to bring any ID for the notary. After a long delay, the proceedings finally ended with a handshake on our part and a parting of ways on the other. Lori and I made our way to our new home and talked about what a great new beginning was about to unfold but the conversation would take a different turn and tone. Reminiscing and feeling sad about leaving and locking the door that morning on the home that we made for the last fourteen years. A mountain of memories that could never be washed away with the turn of a key and the signing of some papers. It was a great home. A loving home. We watched the boys grow up from babies and become young men. We beat cancer…twice! We celebrated birthdays, milestones, holidays and more! This house will surely be missed. As Lor and I pulled up to Country Club drive, great name eh, we would be embarking on a new adventure. A four month renovation that would make this place our own. Time to get to work. There were new memories to be made. We were ready.

Next up: Finally!!

The end of 2008 saw some great strides. Joey was managing the best he could with his compound fractured arm. His long cast was able to be removed after 12 weeks only to be replaced with a shorter one that went from his hand to his elbow. His arm was so thin and scrawny when the longer cast was removed. He still had another month to go with the short cast and then rehab into the new year. What a process. He was able to start skating again and looked forward to rejoining his teammates, hopefully before the end of the season. We would sell our house in UM shortly and begin the moving process to Doylestown. A lot going on.

Meanwhile, I was concentrating on the holiday season as it had been really busy at the store leading up to December. The 2008 holiday season would turn out to be the most lucrative month in Belaggio Jewelers history. We were slammed! Everyday, from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, we were busy. Inventory was flying out of the cases and I needed to bring in additional units of the usual big sellers to keep up with the demand! Diamond stud earrings, diamond tennis bracelets, custom colored stone jewelry, etc. It was crazy. My employees and I were spent after those four weeks. The coffers were full though and that always made going into the new year of business much less stressful. Of course, I would need to fill up the cases after the New year. Spend, spend, spend again. That’s the jewelry business.

Something else was happening in our industry beginning in 2009. A phenomenon that had only occurred once in my lifetime and a few years before I entered the business. The price of gold per ounce was rapidly spiking upward. Back in the early 1980’s, the price per ounce of gold jumped up about three hundred percent. It was a short lived spike but many Jewelers capitalized on the moment and were able to make some big money. Now, the same phenomenon was occurring as the US stock market began crashing along with other economies around the world. The go to investment in times like these is to buy gold as a safe haven for one’s portfolio. The trend upward in the price of gold had already started to rise in 2007 and rapidly began to accelerate in 2009. From $600 per ounce, to $700 and $800 and $900 per ounce. It topped over $1900 per ounce a year later. The jewelry industry would begin to see a huge increase in the cost of gold jewelry, especially chains, bracelets and any style of jewelry that contained mostly gold. The retail cost of newly manufactured jewelry, per gram, was skyrocketing every day. On the other side of the coin, as the price of gold continued to climb, so did the scrap price. Scrap jewelry is essentially jewelry that is unwearable, broken, not worn anymore, unwanted, etc. The condition of the piece didn’t matter or the age. We purchased it by the weight solely for the gold content. The purity of the jewelry set the price based on whether it was 10 karat, 14 karat, 18 karat, 22 karat or 24 karat. The higher the karat, the more we paid out. 24 karat is pure gold and offered the best return for your weight. Most manufactured 24 karat jewelry came from India, the Middle East or other far Eastern countries. 18 karat came mostly from Italy and European countries and 14 karat and 10 karat were the standards of jewelry manufactured in the US.

For precious metal dealers, this was a real boon. A gold rush of sorts and it wasn’t ending anytime soon. The price just kept going up and up. People were selling their personal gold like crazy. Personal jewelry, coins, inherited jewelry, you name it. For my business, it was wonderful, just like all of the other Jewelers in our country. Our days were consumed with sorting, cleaning, weighing, calculating and paying for scrap gold. Platinum and Silver too. All commodity prices were moving upward. I was able, as far as my business was concerned, to finally catch up with many old bills that had been weighing me down. Obligations that I had accumulated during the long road that was fighting Leukemia. Missing so much time from the business hurt me terribly. It was a situation that weighed on me every day. Making positive strides was the outcome of a good year of business and the start of the modern gold rush. We paid very fair scrap prices to our customers and refined the proceeds every week to make some profit. The major downside of the rush though, was going to be an inevitable drop in regular fine jewelry sales. Customers were selling many of their precious heirlooms with no intention of replacing them for a long time. Especially at the inflated cost for new jewelry. For now, let’s hope the gold prices keep rising and the scrap keeps coming. Let’s also hope that the Stock market gets healthy and our economy too. That needs to happen real soon. Overall, our country was hurting. The gold rush helped many people during this time. Especially me.

Next Up: A Sad Return and Goodbye

The summer of 2008 was nice and calm. A mixture of hockey tournaments and visits to LBI for some beach and crabbing fun. Not much to talk about. Joe was getting ready for another season with the Philadelphia Little Flyers and working hard at it. Nick was getting ready for his first year at Holy Ghost Prep and too, working hard at it. Lori and I decided to have a barbecue birthday party for Joey. Invite family and friends and some of Joe’s teammates over to our home in UM.

It was a beautiful day in September and we had a pretty large turnout to celebrate Joe’s twelfth on the 21st. The boys decided to follow Joe around the corner to a neighbors house to have some fun. The house had a huge hill right in front, some forty or fifty feet tall. They were running up and down and rolling down, whatever twelve year old boys do. As the hot dogs and hamburgers were grilling, Joe’s friend Kevin came running to the deck of our house yelling for help. I calmed him down for a second and he said that Joe was hurt bad. Really bad. I took off running towards a sound that began to become louder and louder. Horrible screaming was coming from around the corner and I couldn’t get there quick enough. It was bad… really bad.

The boys were running up and down the hill, chasing each other. Joe was chasing Kevin’s brother Colin down the hill when Colin tripped in front of him. Joe tried to jump over Colin and launched himself in the air. He landed on the sidewalk, trying to brace himself on his right hand to cushion his fall. When I reached him, Joe was lying on the grass between the sidewalk and the street. His arm was somewhat covered by his head and he was shaking. In shock. The next thing I saw almost made me throw up. His hand was facing 90 degrees from his forearm. A double compound fracture with the bones sticking out of his skin. When he landed, both bones in his arm snapped in half. It was horrible. I dialed 911 on my cell immediately and asked for an ambulance to get there as quick as possible. I knew that there was nothing that I could do other than to try and comfort him. He couldn’t be moved. I rubbed his back and spoke to him to keep him alert. I didn’t know what else to do. I told him to try to breath deep and relax the best he could until the ambulance got there. In true Joe fashion, he snapped back at me…” Relax!!! Do you not see my Fuc@!%*ing arm!!!” OMG.

In a few minutes, a car pulled up with a paramedic inside and well, she almost threw up too! Joey was irate by this point and said ” Where is the freaking ambulance!”. I can’t imagine how much pain he was in. The paramedic apologized. There were so many calls that afternoon that none were available just yet. She took his vitals and examined him the best she could just as the ambulance arrived. They loaded him up quickly on a backboard, stabilizing his arm to prevent more injury. Luckily, there wasn’t a lot of blood and the break hadn’t caused injury to the main vessels in his arm. As soon as he was in the ambulance, the paramedics broke protocol and administered Morphine right away to ease his pain. This was one tough motherf#$@*ing kid. I rode to Abington hospital with the first paramedic to arrive while Lori followed in our car. Everyone was really shooken up, especially Joe’s friends. The party, unfortunately, ended soon thereafter.

We arrived at the hospital quickly and the ER received Joe right away. The docs decided to call in an orthopedic specialist immediately and while we were waiting, they were thinking about flying him to CHOP in downtown Philadelphia. Since his fracture was compound, there was a great risk for infection. He had dirt and other debris in the wound that needed to be taken care of right away. The Surgeon got there and decided that there was no time to waste. He would operate immediately. This was so scary. Yet another time Lori and I would have to see one of our boys taken away into a serious surgery. Joe’s friends all had arrived at the hospital soon after us. They were so worried about him. The nurses let them back to see him before the surgery. He was actually hysterical. Funny that is. He was very high on Morphine and man was he in rare form. They all laughed as he rambled on and on. Finally, the surgery team was ready to go and took him down to the operating room area. It was a Sunday and not much staff were around. The Surgeon introduced himself to Joe and wrote in Blue magic marker “This one”, on his right hand. When the Surgeon stepped away, Joe whispered to us to get him another Surgeon right now! “Is this guy serious?”, he said. “He has to mark which arm to operate on!” “He can’t tell which one’s broken!” It was a great laugh at such a tense and terrible moment. The operation took a few hours but was very successful. He came out into recovery with a huge cast and an even better sense of humor. Post-op anesthesia recovery comedy. The nurses loved him.

A few days in the hospital to recover and make sure that there was no infection was the beginning of a long and arduous journey to normalcy for this poor kid. He would miss the majority of his hockey season and come back to of course, more controversy. I’ll leave that for another blog. There was no question though…we were so proud of him. This was a “Bad Break” and he handled it like a man. A real Man.

Next Up: The Gold Rush

As we cruised into the end of the year a lot was going on besides the usual Christmas prep and holiday mayhem at the store. Nick got his acceptance letter to Holy Ghost Prep, a very prestigious Catholic private High School. He was so happy and Lori and I very proud. He was also named Captain of the Upper Moreland Middle school ice hockey team as the team voted him in. Maybe he wasn’t the best player on the team, but it spoke to his character and all around liking by all of the players. He was also voted as one of two players to represent the team at the SHSHL All Star game. This didn’t sit well with Joe since he was the third leading scorer in the whole league as a sixth grader and a Defenseman… Lol. This season was my first as the middle school head coach and as usual it would be a real trip. Luckily, the season would go on break for the holidays so I was able to concentrate on the store. This task was also like coaching a team of sorts. Eight salespeople, three gift wrappers, and hoards of customers, I would have to be more like a quarterback calling out options while listening to every sales pitch going on throughout the store. I would jump from customer to customer, closing one sale and heading over to another if I thought that my employee was losing the deal or I thought that the gift wasn’t the perfect choice for the customer. Twenty five straight days of that is grueling but financially satisfying and necessary for the survival of your business, especially as a Jeweler. We ended up again with a great season and extremely satisfied customers. A team well coached and quarterbacked always wins championships!

That brings us back to our hockey team. A group of young sixth to eighth graders with varying degrees of talent and multiple personalities. My sixth graders were the talented group of club players and Joey one of the only AAA players in the league. His mouth and his skill made him very controversial with all of the competition. In fact, Elementary school kids at Lori’s school in the North Penn district would tell her before our games against North Penn how their older brothers were going to get Joe. Never happened, he always got them…Lol. We finished the season in the middle of the pack but somehow made it to the championship game for the Suburban league title. We would face Archbishop Wood, a team of all eighth graders, in front of about 400 fans. We had lost all three games that we played before against them. Their coach came by our locker room and wished us well before the contest. Nice gesture. I closed the door behind him and said “Alright boys, this is how we beat them tonight!” How…Miracle-esque!

The team followed my instructions to the letter and we were beating them through two periods of play to their chagrin. The bigger and stronger team, Wood came back to lead the game towards the end of the third period. Joey used his chirping skills to gain us a power play with minutes to go and we tied the game up with seconds to spare and end the third period. Our boys were spent by now and I knew that to win the game, I would have to shorten the bench. I asked the eighth graders, our less experienced crew, if they were ok with that. If not, we would continue to roll our lines as usual. They wanted to win though and though they played a great game, agreed to my request. A five minute overtime would be played to determine the league champions. I set up plays for the opening face off and asked our goalie Brett to hang in there a little longer. He stood on his head all game! Joey would control the puck in the defensive zone and get the puck deep into the offensive zone. Play went on for two minutes and we got a face off in their zone. I called a time out to rest my five players that were out on the ice the whole time. I set up a play for the face off when my center Matt said, ” Coach, I’m done”. He was exhausted! I told him to take a drink, follow the plan and give me the best thirty seconds of play he ever had. Guess what? GOOAALL! And guess who scored it? Yep, Matt! As he collapsed, literally crying on the ice, the whole team piled on him in a huge celebration. The other team broke sticks over the boards in disbelief and the fans were cheering wildly. What a great moment for these boys.

Controversy, well of course there was. After the season, I put my request in to coach the JV team next season. No Brainer, right? Wrong. Request denied. Apparantly, I found out that some of the eighth graders thought that I pushed them a little too hard. Well, that was my job. And the Little League incident in the spring, well that was “controversial” too. Oh well, we were putting a bid on a beautiful new house in Doylestown, Nick was moving on to Holy Ghost and Joe kicking ass in AAA for the Little Flyers. Time to move on from UM anyway…for now. Also, another great report on my annual blood test. Nothing tops that.

A quick sidenote… Besides the usual politics and BS that comes with coaching youth sports, the ability to interact, shape and improve the lives of young men and women is priceless. I relished every moment. Take our goalie Brett for instance. His mom took me aside a few years prior to give me a laundry list of health issues Brett had, before I coached him in his first”Learn to play” session. Serious stuff. She was very afraid of him participating in such a rough game but Brett wanted to be a hockey player. She wouldn’t deny him. All that I knew was that if he started flailing his arms, I needed to hang him upside down from the net posts and then get him to the hospital. Whew! Luckily, that only happened once in four years. The summer before the Middle School season, I ran into the family in a Lee’s Hoagie House restaurant. His dad told me that Brett wasn’t sure that he wanted to play hockey anymore. I straightened out that situation with Brett real quick. I was so happy for Brett when we won the championship. He was such a great kid. His mom forwarded me a school project that he did soon thereafter about a person he admired very much. It was beautifully written about “Coach Keenan”. That says it all for me. Thanks, Brett.

Next up: A Bad Break

As we continued to mourn the loss of Nonno, 2007 would be a very busy year. Nicky was becoming a teenager, playing tennis for UMMS and prepping for his entrance exam for Holy Ghost Prep. Go Nick! Joey was preparing for the Little Flyers tryouts again for next season and starting baseball. I would come out of retirement to coach baseball again for his team. This season would be a real trip. Our team would end up with a 17-0 record, a great accomplishment for a great group of kids. The journey to get there was wrought with controversy and emotional ups and downs. My assistant coach was a great dad and guy going through a terrible time with his own long battle with cancer. It was not going well and his two boys were really hurting. They were both on our team and compassion was the main word when handling their issues. It was a tough time. Our championship game ended with a great win and I put the coaches son in to pitch the last 3 innings where he won the game. Tears were flowing and the team rejoiced their phenomenal season until, of course, a deranged parent told the other teams coach to protest the game on a substitution technicality. The teams coach called in the Umpires, lodged the ridiculous protest which made the championship invalid until a board hearing in two weeks was held to discuss the outcome. The team could not celebrate their perfect season. These were ten to twelve year old kids…Nice job parents. Well, needless to say, this led to a big fistfight in the stands among parents and the police coming out in force to control the melee. My team and I remained in the dugout until the fracas subsided…totally disgusted. The outcome…an apology by the opposing coach and the championship restored. Nice job…Too little, too late. The boys never got a chance to celebrate their season.

The rest of the summer included a week in the Pocono mountains where we relaxed, fished, went to the Pocono 500…amazing, and a wild ride in the pouring rain to Pocono General Hospital where I was throwing up out of the car window as another freaking kidney stone attack beat me up. Oh well, just another day in my life! After the mountains, a hockey trip to Boston! What a great town! We toured Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Fenway Park, the TD Gardens, USS Constitution, Boston Aquarium and saw The Blue Man Group! The hockey was great and the trip spectacular. Last up, the final ” Team Belaggio” golf outing.

Like I mentioned earlier, running the “Team Belaggio” event was a labor of love and a lot of labor. This would be my last hurrah. My goal was to reach a grand total of 100k in donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We followed the same game plan with golf, prizes, raffles, great food and Texas Hold-em Poker after the banquet dinner. We did it! All total, we surpassed the 100k goal for the four years of the event. It was a fabulous day. Everyone reached deep into their pockets and the donations exceeded the past three years by far. A job well done by all of my crew and a wonderful sense of accomplishment for such a great cause. This was now eleven years since my diagnoses and a few months after Dr. Dave gave me my all clear, thumbs up, keep the faith, annual report. Now it’s time to get ready for the holidays. This has been a great year for business so I know that the season was going to explode! Fingers crossed.

Another footnote : This blog marks my 100th post so far! I really appreciate everyone who has followed along on my journey. That being said, I need to give love to a great woman who always gave her time to so many charities including my own. A fixture at the front table at all “Team Belaggio” events as well as a major donor and great friend to our family, Helen Piszek Nelson lost her own battle with cancer this week. She fought valiantly over the past five years with class and dignity, always commenting kindly on my blog while she endured. She will be greatly missed. RIP Helen❤. I also would be remiss in not mentioning my partner in baseball, Coach Jack Bennis. He too lost his battle with cancer a short time after our season. A wonderful Dad, Husband and friend, his boys carry on his legacy turning out to be great young men ❤.

Yep, Cancer Sucks

Next up: Another Championship and More Controversy

It was February, 4th, 2007. Super Bowl Sunday. The Colts were preparing to battle it out with the Chicago Bears. Joey was playing in his Basketball game with UM Hoops. This was torture. Nick and I watched as the other teams parents went crazy, as usual. I told the league not to keep him in his normal age bracket. First game was 36 to 6. Joe had 32 points. You can take it from there. Anyway, we put up with the usual BS and actually, it was pretty funny. I got the call just before 3 pm and took it outside the Gymnasium. Lori was composed but her voice was shaking… Nonno passed away at 2:45. He had been failing quickly and Lor had driven up to the Bronx the morning before. The Peduzzi family were all there as his heart failed and his battle ended. A little more than two years since his horrible fall and brain injury, his big heart gave out and Nonno was gone. The boys would be so upset. Nonno was a big part of their life… and they…his. He loved watching them play sports. He loved to teach them how to cook. He loved to cook. From the first day I came to New York, every visit thereafter, holidays, etc. It was all about the food. “Are you hungry?” “What do you want to eat?” This was the standard greeting by Nonno when you walked in his house. It was great. An accomplished chef, butcher and recent retiree of the “Culinary Institute of America” in Hyde Park, NY. The food he prepared was always spectacular… and Italian.

After Joe’s game, I broke the news to the boys on our car ride home. They were so upset. This was the first loss they had ever experienced in their lives and a big loss it was. We went home and called mom and tried to comfort her. I knew she needed to talk to her boys. My parents came over the next morning so that I could head to NY. In a few days, they would join us for the funeral. And what a funeral it was. For two and a half days, friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, Italian Club members, etc. came to mourn and celebrate Nonno’s life. It seemed like the whole Bronx showed up! A heart-felt and appropriate farewell to such a warm, friendly, wonderful man. So many of Lori’s friends turned out too. She really needed them. I was so happy to see the love. The boys arrived on the last day and very maturely said their goodbyes. We were very proud of them. The funeral concluded with a drive- by past the Peduzzi home by the funeral procession and the internment at a beautiful cemetery in the burbs. Italo “Norman” “Nonno” Peduzzi would be greatly missed.

The boys and I would need to really pick it up for Mom. As tough as she was, this was new territory for us. Super Bowl Sunday would take on a whole new meaning going forward. Aunt Susan would take over the holiday helm in the Bronx and have to recreate Nonno’s recipes for posterity. Big shoes to fill. As for me, I had my annual bloodwork coming up in a month. Fingers crossed, let’s hope for some good news.

Next Up: Life Goes On and the Last “Team Belaggio” Event

Hockey, hockey, hockey!! I got to referee Nick’s Royals vs Glaciers game at the Spectrum where the Flyers and Phantoms play, after a Phantoms game. We invited 17 friends to watch the game and have lunch and cake afterwards. It was his 12th birthday! So much fun, I was so proud of your achievement on the ice Nicky! The next day we were in York playing in a tournament and you finally scored your first goal! Joe was working hard and trying to make a AAA summer team. Team Philadelphia. Go get it bud. Baseball was cranking up too. A lot going on.

Tryouts for Team Philadelphia were contentious at the least. Our indoctrination into higher level AAA hockey. So political. Joe was overlooked for a position but caught the eye of the Squirt Major Philadelphia Little Flyers coach. I got a call to invite Joey to try out for the team. An honor. He killed it and became a member of the prestigious AAA Philadelphia Little Flyers Hockey Hockey Club. #44- So proud. We were off to Buffalo, Boston, DC and Chicago. It was so much fun with the boys. Great Hockey players and fierce competitors on the ice. Off the ice was always a different story. Parental drama. The worst part of youth sports. Joe’s coach, Greg Conicello was a coach, an equipment manager, an intermediary, a surgeon and a shrink. There was always drama. Big time Hockey.

At the same time, I was putting together a team of my own. The Upper Moreland Middle school team for 2006. The head coach finally. Sixteen 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders of various experience and talent levels. It was a job! A challenge too! I’m always up for a challenge. Between helping coach the Little Flyers and the UM Middle school team, I was a busy boy! Couldn’t forget work…or the “Team Belaggio” fall classic!

Our third year, labor of love, Leukemia and Lymphoma society golf outing fundraiser was quickly approaching. “Team Belaggio” was going to be bigger and better this year. We coincided this years event with the LLS-Light the Night walk. This year, to try and top last year’s event, we decided to hire a Texas Hold-em event company to set up after the golf outing and banquet dinner. By adding the nighttime event, we increased our population and revenue immensely. The attendees loved the concept. Golf and games with prizes, dinner with raffles, collectable auctions and prize baskets, then an all out cash winning Texas HoldEm tournament. Oh what a night! “TEAM BELAGGIO” Was the largest donor in our division for the Annual “Light the Night Walk” where we donated the proceeds of our event. A huge accomplishment for us all. It felt great to give back to everyone who helped me survive. We would give it another go next year. A last hurrah. Fundraising is really tough work. Four years would be enough. My goal was to reach a total of 100k from all four fundraisers. Now I have to get into Santa mode, Coach mode and Survivor mode. Tis the season…got to make the Donuts! I mean Diamonds!

A Personal side note…

Joseph turned 25 years old on the 21st of September this week…2021. Those that may recall an earlier excerpt will remember the 21st of September was the day after I came home from my Bone Marrow Transplant. That morning Joe announced his arrival and I was rushed to meet Lori and watch him being born at Frankford Torresdale Hospital. His birthday is my reminder of my release day after 58 days of isolation in Hanahmen Hospital. Sullen, sick and barely able to walk, I watched from my wheelchair, that beautiful baby boy shoot out like rocket! Thank God it was quick! I am so proud of how handsome, hard working, intelligent and compassionate he has become. Happy Birthday Joe! We love you!

Next Up: Our Family Mourns

Another year was coming to a close. Eventful as it was, my Leukemia never entered into the equation. A full year of negative tests and some much needed mental wellness. Dr. Topolsky ran another Chimersm, it had been a while, and the results were spectacular. My DNA had completely reverted back to the characteristics of my brother Glenn. From O Positive blood to B Positive again. This was excellent. Except that I could no longer prove that my boys…WERE my boys. My nephew and nieces were my kids now. Lol. Anyway, the cancer front was quiet for now. A funny thing happened though soon thereafter. Joey had grandparents day at his school where my parents were going to represent our family. Joe got up to introduce them and hesitated for a moment. He introduced them as “I think these are my grandparents”. Or, didn’t know, “If his dad was his dad”. Apparently, his older cousins had been teasing him that he and Nick weren’t related to them or me because of my DNA change. He was very confused. Poor kid was only nine years old and had seen and been through so much in his short life. My Dad quickly interjected, explained what Joe was confused about and got a pretty big laugh out of all the other grandparents and teachers in attendance. He was so glad that I was his Dad….again.

Lori accepted a job as a Librarian at the Hatfield Elementary School in the North Penn School District. All of the hard studies and great transcripts paid off. Of course she would begin her masters plus studies simultaneously. No rest for the weary. Or the super motivated. We had a lot of ground to make up. Like miles of ground. Luckily, business was really going strong. This year was headed towards a record breaking season. We needed it so bad! During the Christmas rush, my team of seasoned salespeople really worked hard. My favorite sight is when men press cash against the front windows after we’ve closed already! “Please let us in”! We always did. Santa never rejects cash. Buttoned up the store and headed home with a great feeling. A good year finally. Now, I can sleep.

I arrived home amid some holiday fireworks. Not the beautiful shooting stars and lights, but the very unusual familial sort. An all out disagreement turning ugly. I had no clue what had happened but this was really uncharacteristic of our family. My dad decided to walk out but Lori went after him to difuse the situation. After all she had cooked her ass off. Preparing a dinner for 25 people is no joke. This was Christmas Eve. A merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. We would end it that way. A good night. No other way.

Lor didn’t need any bs. Her dad was still failing and the trips to New York were getting tougher. She was just learning the ropes of her new job, furthering her education and we still were going balls out with hockey, both boys on four teams. It was hectic. The poor woman has had no rest for nine years. It was my turn to pick up the slack. It would end up a great year though. Looking forward to the next one. Happy and Healthy.

Next up: “2006” and Another “Team Belaggio” Event.

“2004” was such an eventfull year. PCR negative for the first time in four years. Lori graduated with her Masters Degree. 4.0 of course. We had a great time on our Disney Cruise. Nick was knocking it out of the park finally in baseball and after four years of hard work, was gearing up for his Black Belt test in “Tong Soo Do” Karate. Very proud pop! Joe was flying on the ice, Bear was getting huge and I finished up another year at the store. Ho Ho Ho! Life was great. The back and forth to New York was a regular occurrence as Nonno was still battling into the new year. Now, it was time to get rolling again on our second “Team Belaggio” event.

Planning a charity event like mine had to be a labor of love. There was so much work involved in raising sponsors, getting donations of gifts and prizes and merchandise. Calls upon calls everyday for months right up until that day. This year was going to be bigger and better. I had experience now.

“2005” was very eventful too. As I planned and worked towards my big event, work was picking up…a lot! A great Valentines Day and Mothers Day, the year was looking good. Hockey was taking up a huge amount of time. Nick was playing his first year on the Middle School team and trying so hard. He was so upset that he hadn’t scored a goal all season. He was only in fifth grade. It will come. We got to go to Lake Placid with Joe’s team and I got to coach in the 1980 Olympic arena where the US won the Gold medal. Very exciting! It was a great time. When we got home, Nick passed his Black Belt test and proudly became an official “Bad Ass”. Scary. Unfortunately, his skills had to be tested soon after….they were pretty good. Took me a while to get Joe’s nose to stop bleeding. Unbelievable. Can they ever stop fighting?!!! This toughness would become most evident a few weeks later.

Nick was running a very high fever. 105 degrees and had terrible pain in his stomach. Lori took him to the doctor and the diagnosis by the PA was a viral infection. He was sent home with instructions to take Ibuprofen and drink liquids. I got home from work a few hours later and the poor kid was curled up on the sofa writhing in pain, high fever and very pale. I knew otherwise. After a fast drive to the ER, Nick was admitted with a burst Appendix! Talk about a scary situation! Luckily, he was given pain meds to help him. I couldn’t believe that he went almost two days barely complaining and just taking the pain. The Surgeon would wait twenty-four hours to operate on Nick so that the antibiotics they were administering to him would reduce the infection prior to taking the infected Appendix out. When the time came to operate, it was so hard to watch him being wheeled away into the operating room. Who gets Appendicitis at eleven years old! The operation was a success and all was good until the Principal at Nick’s Elementary School called his name at his graduation later that night! Where’s Nick! Poor kid didn’t get to go on stage to receive his Presidential Education Award, his Principal Award, his Circle of Excellence Award and his Math Excellence Award. Everybody missed him because they didn’t know what happened yet. Such a great kid.

My “LABOR” of love was now coming to fruition. It felt so great to give back to the cause. The event went off without too many issues. Northampton Valley CC was very hospitable as usual and my team was spectacular! The golf course was packed, as well as the dinner. We had a speaker from the LLS come to our banquet dinner and deliver a great speech as well as another compatriot battling Leukemia. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. In the end, we raised about 20k to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Another successful day. This time I was sure to hydrate and eat. No kidney stones this year…thank God.

Next up: Finishing Out The Year