September 15, 2022
12 to 2 pm
Kelley Funeral Home
125 Pitman Avenue. Pitman, NJ 08071
Phone: (856) 589-6308
(Please feel free to wear Phillies Wear!)
My heart aches for the loss but at the same time I feel relived that he is no longer in pain. I'm thankful that me and my daughter were able to spend some time with him in the last few days of his life. We always laughed when we were together and I was so happy that we were even able to have a few laughs in his last days.
He was so many things to so many people: a brother who was always there for his family, a husband and father who loved his family fiercely, a doting grandfather who shared many pictures with his grandsons, a true Philly Phanatic.
There are so many happy memories between us that I will always cherish! Here are a few:
- The time we were wrestling over matchbox cars and broke a large globe lamp! Our eyes were as big as golf balls knowing our mom was going to kill us! She did too!
- The time we got into a shoving match arguing what channel to put on and since he was bigger than me, I grabbed a vase nearby (it was small!) and cracked him over the head with it!
- The time he took me and my friend Mary to the drive-in movies and we complained that we couldn't see the screen and bugged him to move. He grumbled and drove forward with the speaker still hanging in the window and ripped the window out!
- We used to love listening to Dr. Dimento on Philly radio station WMMR (or WYSP) and crack up at the funny clips played.
- We loved watching old movies together like Abbot & Costello, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone ones), Dark Shadows, The Thin Man series.
- The time he left his gas cap at the gas station (same drive-in night) because we distracted him by talking to him.
- He taught me to drive a stick shift and hardly complained when I'd grind the gears on that poor VW beetle of his. To be fair, it did have problems going into 2nd gear!
- He got up in the middle of the night to pick me up from work at 3 AM then went back to bed only to get up about an hour later for his own job.
- The time he gave me a ride on a motorcycle and I dug my nails so far into his sides when we turned that he'd yell "Ouch!" at every corner.
- The time I came home on leave from the service and he was on my parents' roof putting new shingles on so I joined him! He kept teasing me saying the Army was going to "make a man" out of me (I'm a woman) and I threatened to toss him off the roof. He loved it!
- The time in Biloxi, Mississippi, when we were all crammed into a casino hotel room and everyone got mad at us because they were trying to sleep but me and Gene could not stop giggling. It was like we were little kids again!
Gene, I love you and will miss you terribly. Thank you for your love and support over all these years. You'll always be my favorite knucklehead. Rest in peace bro.
Gail