A name like no other

I come from a large Irish Catholic family my grandparents were eucharistic ministers in the main church in town and were well respected citizens. They had one daughter and 6 sons after her. They were well respected because of their parents but they were known to raise some hell in their days. Now that is a lot of children to raise but they did it and well the boys were wild they knew when to play it cool around the parents. They all grew up and had kids, so I grew up with 16 cousins all ages all in the same town. Saying we were close was like asking if the sky was blue. We grew up together and all were very close. We had fun laughed everyone having that curley sense of humor we kept hidden from the grandparents. They would definitely not approve but our parents all laughed and had fun together and so did we. Every five years we got together with my grandfathers siblings down in Virginia. This reunion was huge with at least 100 people there I will never know everyone’s name. At the reunion everyone wore shirts with the name Curley and the family crest on it. As a child I just assumed everyone had that last name. I didn’t realize my grandpa had two sisters with different last names I just knew we all wore the shirts and all Curley’s somehow. I was younger and much more interested in the pool then knowing names. The adults all knew eachother since they were my dads cousins and they were busy catching up since we were the only family not in Virginia with the rest of the family. We were always the odd family out at the reunion they were all very religious and proper and well my grandparents were great catholics their children not so much and grandchildren definitely not. Always in the back of the photo or causing trouble we were the out of towners and trouble makers of the clan. As a child I wore it with pride and even now im glad I’m with my family and whose close and laughing. Then stuff and boring.

Time goes on and people get older. My grandmother got sick with cancer and passed away and my grandfather not one to live without the love of his life died a year later of a broken heart. I was too young to remember my grandmothers wake and funeral and my grandfather was so sick by then it was smaller and just sad. I don’t remember anything but crying and seeing my grandfather say goodbye to the only woman he ever loved. My grandmother was his sisters best friend and was a debutant only child. My grandfather fell in love immediately and pursued her and made his sister help too. He was not going to miss out on the chance to be with his angel. Seeing him lose her and just suffer for a year we knew he wouldn’t be far behind he just couldn’t live without his best friend. He died of heart failure but he wasn’t sick until she passed and it came out of no where so we know it’s was his heart breaking without her. honestly we all knew he was going to be happier with her in heaven and he knew without a doubt his angel was waiting for him. I remember him always saying she’s waiting for me and I can’t keep her waiting I never could. To him it was like a date. He was late for a date with his angel and it was unacceptable. He always treated her like the princess she was and in the end I think he realized she didn’t need him it was him who needed her. So he let go and went to meet his angel.

Now so far none of this is funny, we were all sad. We had lost the glue to our huge family so close to each other and everyone was just so upset. Well as a strong Irish family bond is all of his siblings came up from Virginia. The wake was hours and hundreds of people. It was tiring and so sad we had all cried so much. The next day we got to say final goodbyes before the funeral. His siblings all came so we were called up to say a final goodbye by family name. Most of us have Curley as the last name so they used first and last name to call each family up. Everything was going well until my grandfather‘s sister Theresa‘s turn to go up and say goodbye. As a female she had taken her husbands name. So as we are all in mourning the funeral director loudly and clearly shouts may the HARRY COCKY family please come up to say their goodbyes. Now every other family wasn’t fazed they lived near each other and it’s the last goodbyes a sorrowful time. Not my family oh no, truthfully I don’t know who started laughing first but my grandfathers children and grandchildren are now all laughing with tears streaming down our faces at this name at final goodbyes. Some couldn’t beliEve the funeral director said it with a straight face others just immature and laughing at the name in general. My grandfather would have shot us all a look and shut us up but he wasn’t there to stop it and it just couldn’t be contained. People had to leave the room parents tried to hush children it was a total hysterical mess exactly what my grandfather would have hated but what we assume he knew would happen. It is still one of my favorite family memories and it’s brought up all the time. Harry cocky is a legend in our family and the name is used all the time in jokes or pranks. He recently passed and we were asked not to come due to well the first incident haha. We didn’t mind he deserved the service he wanted after a lifetime with that name.