So yesterday Wifey and I drove up to Shorecrest to play with the adorable toddler on his last day before school begins. He is a delight, and bundle of energy, and Wifey kept up with him well. As for me, well, I ran around a bit after him, and sure enough, as I exited my car after the drive home, felt a sharp pain in my right hip.
This happened a few months ago, and Dr. Mike, the PT at my gym, was able to massage me back into shape, after diagnosing issues not in the hip joint itself. I texted my man Juan, told him no regular workout for me tomorrow, and was Dr. Mike available for some of his miracle touch? I'm waiting to hear -- and it only hurts when I breathe, so it's no big deal. Serves me right for being 50 lbs too fat.
But as we had dinner, we were discussing how the first people we ever knew with a nanny were neighbors Manny and Lou Jean, who lived on our street by the Falls. Three year old D1 went to play with their girl Nicole one time, and reported that she, D1, had spilled her juice, and that "the other mommy" cleaned it up. D1 was smart and adorable -- kind of like her son, but much smaller.
We realized it'd had been decades since we heard from Lou Jean and Manny, and their kids, and so D1 looked them up. What?!!! Lou Jean had died -- last April! We were shocked, as she was about my age, and we remembered her as a beautiful and smart lady -- she was a nurse at South Miami Hospital.
This am I did a bit of social media research, and got Nicole's FaceBook page. I messaged her, reminding her we were neighbors, and that I had learned of her lovely Mom's passing. She responded -- her father had died, too! Manny was in his mid 60s, and my research showed they had divorced just last year. The social media indicated that Lou Jean had died from cancer -- nothing about Manny's cause of death.
Wifey reminded me we visited them once after they moved -- probably late 90s. Also, I recalled that our friend Donna was a co worker at South Miami -- also decades ago. Donna last worked when Scott was born, and he turns 26 this December.
So I can't say we grieved -- truly these people, though nice, were from another place; another time, as Tom Petty sang.
Still -- we were saddened to learn about this, and once again grateful to still be on this mortal coil.
In the funny side of death Department, I got a letter from Bank of America today -- my late mother in law's normal monthly statement, with a balance of $100.77. The account never had more than $2K, to keep Rachel's Medicaid eligibility, but knowing BOA was going to be a bear to deal with, I kept the balance very low.
Sure enough, in June, I emailed them to tell them about her passing. They sent Wifey and the Ds (beneficiaries of the account) a comically long set of papers, and ask that the Death Certificate be forwarded to some office in Tampa. We complied, but knowing BOA, I suspected they wouldn't simply send the check for $100.77 and close the account.
So my plan is to let them keep writing us, running up at least $100 in postage and staff time, before we follow up. Usually I'm the passive aggressive one, but Wifey is livid with them, too -- they once took up a solid 10 hours of Wifey's time after her Dad died and the account had to be changed. So we'll see.
Still -- nothing funny about the passing of our former neighbors. I recall Manny was a mortgage broker, and was freaked out when Andrew hit -- 30 years ago this week! He had paid off his own mortgage, and therefore wasn't required to carry casualty coverage. He meant to, but forgot to pay his premium.
His house was a total loss like ours, but his company paid for a double wide and generator to be put on his property -- he was such a profit center for them. And, there was such a flurry of buying after Andrew, Manny made so much money that the loss of the $175K house was no big deal.
He paid out of pocket to rebuild it, and sold to Carlos and Lois -- a UM Art professor and his LA born and bred English teacher wife. They were great folks, too -- 2 sons the same age as the Ds. Lois was head of English at Palmer School, as they were merging with Trinity Episcopal, and she got my former nephew his first teaching job there, after he graduated FSU.
Lois went on to found her own academy for well off but behaviorally challenged high school kids -- after she was hired away from Palmer by Heat coach Pat Riley to homeschool his kids. Pat paid her so much, she was able to start the school.
Alas, she and Carlos divorced, and Lois remarried. She and her new husband moved to Orlando, and, last we spoke was moving with him to Colorado -- a western girl always at heart.
Carlos still teaches at UM, I think, and is a well known Peruvian artist. He may well still live in Manny and Lou Jean's house -- last we ran into him, at Home Depot, he was still there.
I wish peace for the orphans, Nicole, Manny Junior, and a change of life baby, Nina. Based on FaceBook, the three are very close and very supportive of each other.
Their parents' loss was some sad news across the years.
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