My Uncle Joe

My father’s 80th birthday, 2011. Top row, Uncle Joe and my late Aunt Tess. Bottom row, my father and my Aunt Mary.

When I was growing up in a suburb in Central Jersey, we’d take the hour or so drive up the turnpike to visit my paternal grandparents in Jersey City. They lived in the Greenville section on Danforth Avenue.

Part of visiting Nana and Pop Pop was seeing Uncle Joe, who lived with them. I was fascinated by how he was always on the move, would stop to talk with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face, and then was in motion again. Even…