………………………….The Dell’Olio Boys….My parents had three sons……Starting at the right…..my oldest brother Mauro…..in the middle, rightly placed, my brother John…..and at the extreme left, the baby of the family…me……..My father’s father basically picked out our names. My brother Mauro was named after him, my father’s father, my brother John was named after my Mom’s Dad…..My mother wanted to name me James after my Dad….but….my grandfather said I should be named after my Dad’s only brother…..Louis……In all honesty I always disliked my name, and wished I was named James, but my Mom acquiesced to my grandfather and Louis it was to be…..There is quite a large age gap between my brothers and me…It may not seem all that large to some, but to me it was gigantic…..My mother had another pregnancy between John and me…..It was a full term pregnancy but the baby, a girl, was stillborn…..My mom named her Grace…My Mom told me she had red hair like her….I know my mother was heartbroken…..My mother always wanted a girl. She always told me…”boys leave their mothers, but girls always stay close”….I guess in many ways that is true….It certainly was true with Jac and her mom….Maybe that’s one of the reasons I was close to my mother…..not that I could replace the sister I never knew, but because I knew there was a void in my mom’s heart that I tried to fill…..It just wasn’t meant to be……My parents waited a long time before getting pregnant again, and then I was born……My mother was already in her 40s so they decided no more children……..We lived in an a very nice two bedroom apartment on the top floor in my grandfather’s house in Brooklyn. The three of us shared a bedroom…We lived across from my grandparents…..The doors to our apartments was always open, and I would just walk across and visit…My mom always knew where I was…..When I was three we moved from Brooklyn to Long Island to a three bedroom house. My brother John and I still shared a bedroom, and Mauro had the corner bedroom….Years later it became my bedroom…..The three of us are so very different…..Mauro is incredibly smart, and has a mathematical brain. He’s great with computers, gadgets, and just figuring all kinds of problems out….He never gives up until the problem is solved…..He can fix anything!!! I always call him when I have a problem which is often….sometime daily! That side of my brain was never well developed, but then he’s not terribly artistic! so it all evened out….I remember some nights, when I was three or four I would crawl into bed with my brother, because he would tell me stories…but I had to tickle his arm…..On this past Father’s Day we reminisced about those times. He used to draw me these very simple pictures of elephants that I loved!…..and I have loved elephants ever since!!….He was studying to be an aeronautical engineer. If I remember correctly he had 4 or 6 months to go before graduating, but he decided to leave school and go into my father’s business…..My mother was livid! I remember her arguing with my dad about him taking my brother into his business……The Vietnam War was heating up, and since he was no longer in school he was drafted…..The day that he went to the draft board in Brooklyn my first cousin was there also. His name too was Mauro Dell’Olio. When they realized there were two men named Mauro Dell’Olio they asked them if they were related. They said yes, first cousins. They split them up, and my brother was sent to Berlin, Germany, and my cousin to Vietnam….Thankfully, they both came home…….When my brother came home from his tour in Germany he met Kathy….They married and had four beautiful children. Tragically, my brother’s oldest 21 year old son John, was killed in a freak accident on the Throgs Neck Bridge…..He would have been 53 on June 27th. He died when he was 21….That is a loss, no matter how many years go by, you never get over……….My brother John took a different route with his life. Though both of my brothers were very athletic, John excelled…..He went to Hofstra College, and became a physical education teacher. He married his childhood sweetheart, and they too had four children……three boys and one girl…… My brother John kept getting postponed from serving in the army, because first he was in college, then he was married, and then because he had children…….My brother John was a happy go lucky guy, and had the best smile….he had dimples too!….When I was in 7th grade at Elmont Memorial Junior and Senior High School he was a senior….We would sometimes pass each other in the hall, but he was always with his jock friends, and basically ignore me and my friends….The age gap really showed…He was on every team and was a star!…..He was also a great dressier!! He always went to school before me, because he had some sort of practice…..I would sneak in his dressier and “barrow” one of his sweaters…I always got home before him, and would put it back…..He never knew until years later when I confessed!…..My brother always led a physical life, ate well, and took great care of himself…..but that didn’t stop cancer from knocking on his door…..He discovered he had lymphoma. While in the hospital for tests he had a heart attack and never recovered…..It was all very quick and very shocking…..He left behind 12 grandchildren…..As for me….I wasn’t at all like my brothers…..I wasn’t athletic, and couldn’t compete with them. At an early age I loved to draw and found my outlet. I also got compliments on my artistic abilities, and when I child gets positive reinforcement they continue on that path…I would spend hours drawing and coloring in my coloring books. I had a huge collection and when the set of 64 color crayons came out I was so happy……No one was allowed to touch my books or crayons!…My Mom was always very encouraging, and it was my mom who showed her older brother, my Uncle Paul, my early fashion sketches….He was an officer in the Ladies Garment Union…..He told her I had a definite talent, and years later he g the elevator onto his floor in 550 7th Ave the fragrance of Norell Perfume hit me. All of my senses were overwhelmed, and I knew I had found my calling….. At Parsons school I got the Norman Norell Scholarship and many awards…….It all came very easy to me….I remember a line in the movie “The Way We Were” that really struck a cord with me….Hubble Gardner, Robert Redford’s character, said it “all came too easy”, and he was waiting for the shoe to drop….which it did….For years it all came too easily for me……Sooner or later the shoe drops for all of us, and no one goes through life unscathed….I got my first job in the Fashion Industry while I was still in school. It was in 550 7th Ave…..the same building Norell was still in!….The rest is history!!……I can’t say my brothers understood me very much, and I’m sure they wondered how art was going to help me make a living. We weren’t very close when I was young. They were much older, and off doing their thing….It was only when I got older, and our age gap got smaller, that we became very close. They came to respect my success……..and of course they all loved JAC!!!…….. I’m the Godfather to two my my brothers sons, so I’m the Godfather of four……..I have enjoyed being the Big Uncle!…..I consider myself to be very lucky to have had the life that was given to me….Some might even say it was charmed…..though I did have bumps in the road along the way…..I overcame all of them…………….I had the best parents….the best family……the best friends……I found in Jac the LOVE OF MY LIFE…………who could ask for more………charmed for sure.
