I have been trying to figure out how to eulogize him. How to tell people about him in a way that will also let them know him. How do I tell my sons about him when many of the stories about him are well.... Not exactly PG. The best stories aren't anyway. I kept coming back to a story a friend and coworker who knew him had told me.
He was in a dart league with Gino. And Gino was never on time. The game would start and when it was getting closer and closer to his turn at darts people would begin asking themselves... "Where the hell is Gino?!" and then just in time he would arrive... Parking on the sidewalk or on a patch of grass... Never in an actual parking spot like anyone else mind you. This was Gino; he had special parking places wherever he went. He would stroll inside get himself a beer and head over to the dart board and with a beer in one hand he would throw his darts with impeccable aim with the other then wander back to the bar as though nothing about any of what just happened was unusual. I imagine because for him it wasn't. I kept coming back to that story and it got me thinking. He did have amazing timing. He showed up just when he needed to. He is very knowledgeable. He seems to know someone everywhere you go. He knows where all the best places are. He is alway going on some adventure somewhere and getting up to no good. He often was dragging someone along with him. A friend or family member. We all have Gino stories. Things he has done or places he took us. Like a tavern in the middle of an apple orchard on a street with no name. The apple orchard is also in the middle of nowhere eastern Washington. How did he know it was there? He even once serendipitously arrived in a bar just in time to prevent some bikers from killing my brother.....but that is a whole other story..... But it was the story about the dart game that really brought it all together.
“A wizard is never late. Nor is he early; he arrives precisely when he means to.” - Gandalf
My Uncle Gino.... Is a Wizard.
The impeccable timing. The knowledge of far off locations and all the best secret places and things. He is aloof and solitary yet very much a social person who loves the good company of friends and family. Dragging friends and family off on adventures often without warning.... There is no other way to say it. No way around it.
The man is clearly a wizard.
Now he is off in the great beyond with his father and his son. Absolutely trying to figure out what sort of new things he can get into and take them along with him.
I'll see you around Gino Moroni.....You probably already know when and where though.
