La Dolce Vita

	Uncle Joe and Family
	Photo: Bill Bettencourt

When my cousin Anna told me that my uncle Joe had died at the age of 79, she said he felt his spirit pass through her as he left this world.

"Just like in the movie Ghost," she explained. I thought to myself, this isn't a good sign.

But as I thought more about him, his life and his grand spirit, I decided that she must be right.

Joe was my mother's younger brother -- the eldest of four boys and definitely the patriarch of our family here in America.

He followed my mom to the U.S. from Italy in the early 1960s, and worked hard to craft his own American dream: job, marriage, kids and a house in the suburbs.

He was a big man with a strong constitution, and he worked as a butcher in a meat-processing plant for more than 20 years. When I first found out he had fallen ill, I knew he would beat it -- he had always seemed invincible.

By all appearances, Joe was an ordinary American who went to work every day and came home to his family. ...