All Together Now

One of my cousins died a few days ago. He was a first cousin but I had not seen him since I was a child. He lived in Massachusetts since he was in college. He passed away at 68 years old from a sudden heart attack. He was my mother's nephew. Even though I did not personally know him, I knew about him. As a teenager, he loved to read the dictionary. He went to Bronx High School of Science. He was the CEO of a major computer company. This company discovered "analog" years before Bill Gates created Microsoft. The last time I checked, my cousin was on the Forbes 500 list and his ranking was double digits. Needless to say, he was a wealthy man. He left behind a wife and two children. What he also left behind was a reputation of being a wonderful family man, and an employer that had a loyal staff for years. He treated people the way he would like to be treated. The most important thing that I will remember about him was the way he treated my mother. Every few months they would talk on the phone. On the occasions that she would call him, she was treated like royalty. When she got to his executive secretary, all she had to say was that Aunt B was calling. The secretary had instructions to find my cousin wherever he was, because this was a call he would always take. There were times when he would leave a meeting to talk to my mother. When she told him that she felt bad that he was pulled out of a meeting, he would say "they can wait for me, you are more important". I am sorry that he is gone and my heart goes out to his family.