My Avo Mario

Although it's sad to write about or sad to read it's completely necessary. Around the time of my Avo Mario's death I was not blogging and therefore had no where to resort the deep feelings I kept on my chest; it feels good to finally be able to get it out so excuse my reminiscent post. The love for both of my late grandfathers is unmeasurable and special in their own ways. My Avo Joaquim (mom's dad) did not speak one word of English, therefore our relationship was special because I was his only grandchild that spoke some sort of Portuguese and conversed with him as much as I could. My Avo Mario on the other hand attempted to learn the language and was able to converse with all twelve of his grandchildren. Being able to have full on converstations with my Avo Mario opened up a completely different world and relationship. He knew my personality, likes/dislikes, goals and ambitions. One of my goals in life that he is now my biggest motivation and push to fulfill is my goal of becoming a Registered Nurse. When he was very ill in 2006 I was at the hospital every single day visiting him making sure everything was going good. When he was released from the hospital he was still very sick and there was a great chance of him returning to the hospital due to infections or what have you. I will never forget the inspiring words I will forever cherish in my heart. He said to me, "Jessica, if I go back to the hospital again I need you to come and visit me like you did before, and you better go to school to be a Nurse so you can take care of me OK?". I've always talked about becoming a Nurse and I know in due time that day will come, but it means so much more to fulfill that goal in my grandfather's name. I will forever cherish and carry on the endless memories my Avo Mario left behind. Benfica soccer games will be a lot quieter at my house and the wine bottle will be a lot fuller. I loved pouring him either a glass of Carlo Rossi red wine or making him a Seven & Seven before watching soccer games, where he would take his first sip and follow it with a, "Thank you Hunnickas". Although if we really wanted to watch his blood pressure we should have never allowed him to view soccer or football games. He was a die hard Benfica and 49er's fan and when either of the two would mess up we all knew about it. He would pace back and forth nervously if his team was loosing cursing in Portuguese at the TV screen, with my grandmother in the background yelling at him to "Calma!". Tough love is what I would describe my grandparent's Vieiras relationship. My grandpa was SO sweet and my grandma (who I love don't get me wrong) has always just been the most negative nancy. I've never seen someone so grief stricken in my life when my Avo passed, so there was never a doubt there was a lack of love, but if you know my grandmother Mary Lou you know what I mean; she's that way with each and every person she loves and cares about; she must have loved my grandfather a ton because he got the brunt of all her negativity. I loved having my grandfather over; I loved being in the kitchen with him watching him cook up his catch for all of us to eat, mind you he LOVED cooking for his family. In his last months I would constantly nag on him to come over and make me fried rock cod (my favorite) with potatoes. He was always ready and willing, it was just either bad timing or fish was really expensive, but I never got to have that meal I wanted cooked by him so badly. Of course I wish I could've cooked that fish with him like I wanted, but my family has already and will continue to eat lots of my grandfather's favorite dishes in memory of him. If I had the opportunity to be my grandfather's partner in Sueka (Portuguese card game) I would take advantage of it every single time. For two reasons: he was an experienced player and I learned so much playing with him, but I mostly loved seeing him get either way too happy or way too mad, I will never forget the slamming of his knuckles while he placed the cards down extremely hard and me trying to mimic what he did but just simply hurt the hell out of my hand. Lastly, anyone who knew my grandfather knew he LOVED fishing; that was his passion. He knew anything and everything there was to know about fishing and loved fishing often. I can only imagine how tough it's going to be for the men in my family, especially my dad, who did the bulk of the fishing with my grandfather. The fishing trips won't be the same for a while to come and I think that is understandable but I know they won't stop going out there, they'll continue to go in memory of grandfather. I'll end this with a story from my grandfather's last fishing trip pictured below. My dad took my grandfather on a party boat fishing trip in Monterey the weekend before my grandfather's death; my dad will forever keep that as such an important memory I know. While they were getting out into the depths and were able to begin fishing the Captain of the boat came out and told the fisherman how many feet of water they were in and how many feet down the fish were. The Captain knew this obviously through GPS or whatever sonar tools they use to monitor fish. When my dad went to translate what the Captain said my grandfather muttered under her breath something along the lines of, "Tell that Captain to tell those Americans how to fish, but don't tell me". Everyone could not stop laughing when they all heard this story, because everyone already knew how he was. If anyone knew fishing it was my grandpa. On his last fishing trip my dad told me how numerous people came up to him asking him for advice on what to do because he was the most sucessful fisher out that day. On these party boats they put however much money into a "pot" from everyone fishing on the party boat and whoever catches the most fish wins the money. You guessed it, my little 72 year old grandfather went out that day and caught the most fish and won that pot of money. Could you ask for a better fishing trip? My dad is so incredibly lucky to have that extremely precious lasting memory with his father doing both of their favorite pastimes. I could continue writing but it would honestly never stop because as you can see there is way too much to talk about when it comes to my Avo Mario. I am so lucky to have had the relationship I had with him and I will forever carry it with me for the rest of my life.

June 26, 1936 - September 14, 2008
Forever Missed
Forever in my Heart