Youse Get to Behooving

Patty and I have had interesting conversations throughout the years we have known one another.  One conversation in particular had to do with her choice of college.  She told me she hadn't planned on attending where she went and I asked her, so what made you change your mind.  She said my uncle came to me one day, took me on a walk and told me it would behoove me to attended the family's beloved Alma mater.  I must have had a strange expression on my face because she added, when an Italian man expresses, it would behoove you...you get to behooving.  That was my friend Patty.  We played some pretty tough tennis together but we always had the most laughs along the way.  Roy and I loved it when we were invited over to her home for homemade Italian dinners and her parties were legendary.  There are so many times of conversation that would be stopped with the serious warning, so serious, she would be pointing her finger at me and say, what I'm about to tell you, you take it to your grave.  I'd protest, I didn't want to know anything or have knowledge of anything that I might need to take to my grave.  One time she invited me to this fancy schmancy fund raising gala.  She picked me up in her silver drop top Mercedes.  She handed me some sunglasses that looked like they might have been owned by Jackie O and a long black thin see through scarf.  She told me to put on the sunglasses, even though it was night, and wrap the scarf about my head and have it drape off my shoulder.  She told me with those two items, I would fit in much better in the gala than without them.  She was right. 

My friend Patty died Saturday after battling mesothelioma cancer for several years.  At one point we all thought she had it beat, but it came back with a vengeance.  She began looking to get into experimental studies and never gave up hope.

Patricia Elaine Calamari

Date of Birth:

Monday, February 13th, 1961

Date of Death:

Saturday, October 8th, 2011                           

Obituary:

Calamari, Patricia Elaine of Houston, TX formerly of Glen Head, NY on October 8, 2011. Loving mother of Ross and Patrick McLauchlan. Beloved daughter of Leonora and the late Raymond Calamari Sr. Dear sister of Kathleen Daly, Barbara Calamari, and Raymond Calamari. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Visiting Wednesday 1 – 5 and 7 – 9 pm, Whitting Funeral Home 300 Glen Cove Ave., Glen Head, NY 11545. Funeral Mass Thursday 10:00 am, St. Mary’s R. C. Church, Roslyn, NY. Interment Locust Valley Cemetery, Locust Valley, NY.

Although we only ran into each other at the Play Grocery store from time to time since I quit playing tennis, I thought and prayed for her often, I will miss her.