Thank You Tio
What can you say about a man that was so loving? What can you say about a man that was so giving to so many? How do I thank a man for being everything he didn’t have to be to me? The only thing I can do is say THANK YOU!
Tio Jerry took me in and treated me, not like a nephew he saw occasionally, but instead like a son he fathered. He was truly invested in my every movement, my interests, my dreams. I would come every summer and stay with him for 2-3 months from the time I was a young boy until I was a grown man. (I don’t know who was more excited each summer to be honest) we would watch baseball together for hours while I massaged his feet. Apparently I fell in a long line of people that massaged his feet. We would talk baseball and that is where I truly fell in love with the game. Of course every great player at that time was Cuban. He would tell me I better play Catcher or 1st base because I was too Patoon. I don’t speak Spanish as many of you know, so at first I thought that meant big or strong. The reality is that was my nickname from Tio, which meant big feet and slow. (He had a nickname for everyone). I went off to college to play baseball, a catcher, and was proud of my new nickname in college FMS ( which meant Fat Man Speed) I called to tell Tio and he said that’s cool but your always going to be my Patoon. He would tell me to love the game and appreciate every moment, and I did just that.
Tio Jerry was always at every major point in my life - high school graduation, college graduation, best man, birth of both children, the list goes on. He was always there and he didn’t have to be, but that is who he wanted to be for me.
When I started in business our conversations changed. We would talk often, he was like a mentor for me. He started to tell me the importance of hard work and career planning. He would tell me when you love your work it’s not a job. When you dread your job, find your next passion he would say to me. He would tell me wealth is not the amount of material things you have because those come and go. Real wealth is how you care and love people close to you personally and in business. How you always need to make sure they are okay and don’t need a shoulder to lean on. When you can be that for people, that is when you have real wealth. Tio Jerry was a very wealthy man because of this as many of you know.
I can never repay him for what he did for me in my life. So Tio let me just tell you again, THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, from the bottom of my heart to the heights of heaven! I will miss you deeply!
Love Always,
Patoon
