Jeanne H. DiScala December 26, 1927 - October 14, 2000
My Name is John Einar DiScala, and I came very close to being the Ultimate Italian: John Anthony DiScala, but thank God, I was delivered 2 weeks early on my Grandfather's Birthday. I never got to meet him, but I always heard stories about him from my Mom about how he came over from Denmark, and was a very strong, stoic man, who loved fish. She always dreamed of going to see the country and where he was born, but she never wanted to leave us as kids, so she chose not to go. The one positive thing to come out of her cancer was that, I was able to give that dream to her. The Cancer made her realize life isn’t forever, and that she needed to start enjoying it. When she recovered from her first 9 hour operation I said "Mom when you get better were going to Denmark." She said "No, I can't I'm in Chemo." I pressured her, and pressured her, and finally she asked the Dr. to give her a week off, she did, and she began to pack (a month early). I cashed in some miles and treated us to our dream trip. . First Class Tickets to places we only imagined about going. London
(to shop and see theatre), Paris (to see where she would’ve studied
if she took that scholarship from Parsons), and the most important
place: The island of Fyn in Denmark. When we were landing in Copenhagen,
I looked over at my Mom staring out the window, she had tears
rolling down her face. We met up with my brother and sister, toured
the house my Grandfather grew up in (we even got to take home
a piece of the brick), met long lost relatives, and had such a
great time exploring. She was so cute and appreciative.
I love You! I will always love you. From My Sister Carol I would like to tell you a little bit about my relationship with my mother whom I loved more than anyone on this Earth. But first of all her physical beauty. As you all know she was a true lady and carried herself with grace. Her long strawberry blonde hair and her peaches and cream skin and her soft robins egg blue eyes is the memory that I have imbedded in my mind. She was always there for me when I needed her. She wasn’t off playing tennis or having her hair done. Mom gave 110% and was always available for us. She was an extremely religious and intuitive person. She was always right and most importantly had the right attitude in a crisis. For instance, I would like to tell you about the two most difficult times of my life and how my mother pulled me through them. When my daughter Amanda Jean’s heart failed at nine weeks old and she was on complete life support. The Doctors all said that her condition was grave and that she would not make it through the night. I turned to my mother and asked her if she thought Amanda would survive. Mom said " the Doctors don’t know, they’re not God." She said "Carol, you just have to believe that she’s going to pull through. It’s important to Amanda that you think positively and give her positive support and strength. I also asked Mom if she could promise me that Amanda would make it , and she said "you just have to believe in God." Then Mom said "just you wait in a year from now little Amanda will be up in Erie chasing your dogs "Harry and Spooner " around the house. Sure enough Mom was right again. Out of a hundred children with this disease only a handful survive.
Today,Amanda Jean is a healthy, beautiful and athletic little girl and is referred to as
the "miracle child ." The second most difficult time is when I was
about to give birth by C-section to my son John. There was a life
threatening complication.A team of Doctors wanted to airlift us
to another hospital that specialized in difficult births. I was
very much against the idea since John’s heartbeat was becoming faint.
When I asked the Doctors why they couldn’t do it quickly at the
hospital we were at, they said " because we’re not worried about
your baby’s life , the baby will be fine, it’s your life that we’re
concerned about, you see we’re not sure that we’re going to be able
to stop the bleeding. At that moment I turned white. My mother immediately
came to my rescue and kicked everybody out of the room. She was
the most serious that I have ever seen her in my life. She came
towards me pointing her finger in my face and said "now you listen
to me young lady and you listen carefully, I am 72 years old and
have survived two nine hour operations and am still here. You have
a fifteen-minute procedure ahead of you and you just have to think
positively. You are going to be fine. Now go in there with your
chin up and come out of that room with my grandchild. Well Mom here
I am, thanks for the most important pep talk of my life. I love
you and thank-you for all of your courage and please know that I
will always love you and hold you close to my heart. You know they
say, "a mother holds her child’s hand for a short time yet their
hearts forever. I love you more than anyone in the world and will
miss you more as time goes on. You were my best friend, my mentor,
but most of all you were my mother. From My Brother Frank Harvest Moon It has been 4 days now since I have last held your hand and felt the warmth from your body. Thankfully, the warmth and the love that has supported us, mothered us, directed and reassured us did not come from your body. I know now that it came from your soul. Because I still feel it. I can still hear it in your voice that comes to me telling me "oh Frankie, everything is going to be all right", and just as in life, I have to believe you Mom, because you were always right in life, more right than anyone I have ever known. I would not dare to challenge you in death. Your final full day on earth with us, was filled with examples of your amazing character. Friday was a beautiful unusually warm fall day. And that evening you rose from your bed to look out of your window on the 6 floor of the Norwalk Hospital to look out at the full moon rising in the sky. You never broke. You stayed strong to the end. It was just like you to spend the last of your incredible strength reassuring and carrying us, your husband and your children, who were dying with you. As your body began to shut down and the nurses and doctors attached more medical efforts to you, you stayed positive, and never once did you let anyone know that you knew that it would not be long. You kept hope alive. To your baby John you said "Don’t worry. I love you" To your daughter Carol, "Don’t worry honey, Don’t cry I’m not going anywhere" To Georgette, you said that "you love us all equally, except that you couldn’t help loving Frankie a little more than the rest" "Don’t cry for me" and "I love you all equally." To me you said "I love you." The ground has slipped away from under our feet, and we are trying, somehow, to sit in this empty space that has been left behind, in the meantime, without any particular success. I am incapable of finishing, but it appears that a strange hand, a miserable disease, has already finished for me. Having no choice, I part from you, my hero, and ask that you rest in peace, that you think about us and miss us, because we here -- down below -- love you so much. To the angels of heaven that are accompanying you now, to your father Einar, your mother Caroline, your brother Jens and sister Martha, I ask that they watch over you, because you deserve to be watched over, you watched over us so well. We will love you, always.
From My Sister Georgette
From
My Father THROUGH GOOD TIMES
AND BAD TIMES
THE YEARS CAREENED BY
LIKE A SPEEDING ROCKET
CLIMBING A LIMITLESS SKY
WE ADDED FOUR JEWELS
TO OUR NEST ON THE LANE
WHO GAVE US MUCH HAPPINESS
AND SOMETIMES A LITTLE PAIN
NOW THEY’VE DEPARTED
TO A LIFE OF THEIR OWN
LIKE WILD WEEDS
THEY LEAVE WEATHERED AND GROWN
AND YOU MY LOVE
NO LONGER NINETEEN
ARE STILL THE MOST BEAUTIFUL
GIRL I HAVE EVER SEEN
AND I LOVE TO LOOK
UPON YOUR PERFECTLY FORMED FACE
WITH A BODY TO MATCH
AND YOUR UNFAILING GRACE
THE WAVES OF MY HEART
THE CREST OF MY LOVE
RISES TO HONOR THE WOMAN I LOVE
BRILLIANT, PERSONABLE
LOVER OF MINE
I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER
TO THE END OF TIME
MY MOM'S FAMOUS MISSISSIPPI MUD CAKE
POEMS THAT HAVE HELPED US GET BY Do
Not Stand At My Grave And Weep
I am not there, I do not sleep Ascension
And if I go, |
Home •
About Johnny •
Publicity •
Newsletter Archive •
My Mom •
Contact Us
Johnny's Book •
Videos •
Blog •
Bookmark Us •
•
Banners •
Suggestions