photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Michael Coffindaffer
...........................................................................................

On May 30, at the Community House, at an event organized by Dominic DeSantis and Roland Michely, Cherry Grove honored departed partners, friends, neighbors, and pets as well, at the annual community Memorial Day Service.

Cherry Grove Community Association, Inc. (CGCAI) President Diane Romano acknowledged our coming together to “celebrate the day by remembering the people we loved” and read a pertinent poem, by Mary Fry, “Do not stand at my grave and weep.” Arts Project of Cherry Grove President (APCG) Michael Coffindaffer recalled service people, as Diane had, who had lost their lives, and beginning with a quote from President Herbert Hoover, “Old men declare war, but it is youth who must fight and die,” shared the story of a young Long Islander who perished during the war in Vietnam.

Pianist David Clenny played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fantasy in C Minor, both its majestic solemnity and affirmative resolution befitting the occasion and, after Dominic read the names of those we lost in the last year, Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade Number Two in F Major, which provided the necessary consoling balm and cascading release.

Among those remembered were Albert “Alicia” De Norio; “Uncle” Frank Caviglia of This and That; musician Rodney Giles, Eric Coyne’s former partner, who, in Island Repertory Theater Company’s “Brokeback Mountain and Me,” spoke of his affinity for the novel and film; John Lantiere; Mark Nitchik; John Richards of Valhalla; actor, singer, and pastry chef John “Rosie” Scoullar, Bradshaw Smith’s partner; Anthony “Tony Tits” Solitorio; Ken Toht, Stephen Kowalchik’s partner; Miss Carmen Thomas, Walter Quetsch’s friend and housemate, who lived to the age of 98; and Max, CJ Mingolelli and Marco Herrera’s mastiff; boxer Floyd, after whom Brett Roper named his restaurant, Floyd’s; and Geo, Alison Brackman and Francine Sardone’s dog.