Memories of my Godfather
Sometimes, when things were very serious—like during my mother’s long illness—my Nono would find a way to make everybody laugh. I distinctly remember a time when we were all gathered in the family room in the house where I grew up. We were talking about ordinary things (I think I was answering a question my Nona had asked me about how school was going), but the mood was dreary. Although I can’t say for sure when this happened, but I know my mother was still alive but not in the room, so she was likely in the hospital, which means I was between 9 and 13 years of age. In any case, quite suddenly and totally out of the blue, my Nono did a summersault off the couch. It seems impossible that this is a real memory, but I swear it happened. My sister and I burst out laughing. Nona was shocked and said, “Taki, what are you doing?” but then she started laughing too. He had a way of lightening things when they were too heavy. He had the best sense of humor of anyone I ever knew. He was almost ...