Here is a photo taken in the days leading up to our wedding. This is my favourite picture of the three of us, mainly because this was typical Tata: always ready for a warm embrace and a huge smile. My family stayed with my soon-to-be-inlaws for the wedding, and my brother Luke wrote me recently that what he will remember about Tata is that he always seemed to be the happiest guy on earth. I have to think that it was more than just the fact that his last daughter was finally getting married off.
My father-in-law had 14 children, and by the time he passed away, 62 grand-children and several great-grandchildren. There must be a lot of joy that comes with having so much progeny, but a fair amount of sorrow as well. Not long after his oldest grandchild died of complications from leukemia, his oldest son was killed in a car accident in Romania, leaving behind a wife and several young children. He was named Cornel after his father, and the two of them had a close relationship. Elena said that Tata was absolutely devastated, and was never quite the same afterward. I imagine that spending time with the children from his son Cornel was a comfort to him. They are now grown up, and have begun to have children of their own. This is a photo taken this past fall of Tata playing with his oldest great-grandchild, the grandson of his son Cornel.
This is the last picture of my father-in-law, taken two weeks before his passing. I don't think there could be a more fitting final portrait of him: at home with his beloved wife of more than fifty years, a grandchild in his lap and a dear long-time family friend who came to visit.
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