- Forrest J. Ackerman
- Bob May
- Majel Barrett Roddenberry
"Uncle Forry" and Steve at the Ackermansion
Steve with Bob May - the man who played the Robot in "Lost in Space"
Majel Barrett Roddenberry
I want to share a little something with you that happened to me last night, 1/22/09.
Although my Mom is in Heaven... My TV Mom was there for me tonight...
I went to Bob May's viewing tonight as I just wanted to say my final goodbye. "Lost in Space" was a big part of my childhood, and to become friends in real life for over 10 years with the man who played the robot was my pleasure.
After saying a few prayers and kneeling at the open casket I went to the back to sit down. I had tears in my eyes when all of a sudden this woman comes and sits right next to me and comforts me. She was sharing all her best memories with Bob and she put my mind at rest. After 15 minutes she said she had to go and it was really nice talking to me.
She didn't need to introduce herself to me as I already knew who she was. It was June Lockhart, my favorite TV Mom. She played Timmy's mom on "Lassie" but is best known as Maureen Robinson, the mother from "Lost in Space."
I told her she was my favorite TV mom and what a great actress she was. She gave me a big hug and a kiss and I told her I would always remember her act of kindness. So yes, life is very surreal because everything that you saw in June Lockhart on "Lost in Space" was real, because she is a very caring person and exactly like she is on TV.
It's the second day in a row it is raining here in SoCal and I am going to Bob's funeral service and graveside mass at 1 p.m. today. I expect the whole cast of "Lost in Space" to be there and I am sure there will be many stories to be told at the eulogy. From there we all to go to this very nice restaurant and celebrate his life.
I am glad I got to share this with all of you. These are the words to the song I wrote for him...
I have a publishing deal on the horizon and am very close to wrapping my book up about the highs and lows of my life growing up in a show biz family and dealing with my constant battle with depression. If you think you know me, guess again... as these are parts of my life that have never been told till now.
Here are just a few excerpts I would like to share with you all. Everything written below is copywritten and protected by my corporation, "Believe in Stephen Productions."
Let's go back to the very beginning! Here's Grandma's little Italian pride and joy!
Growing up...
In order to know where you are going in life, sometimes you meet the right people or the right person and everything seems crystal clear!
When I was 19, I thought I wanted to be a musican and bought a cheap acoustic guitar and bass. A few months later I met an incredibly talented musician by the name of Tom Parella! After hearing him sing and watching how effortlessly he played the guitar, I knew I wanted to be a musician!
We formed a duo called "EDISON VALLEY" and played up and down the east coast and to this day we still keep in touch. When we would play the song "Scarborough Fair," any club at anytime would fall to a deafening silence. What Tom and I basically did was purposely play and sing softer, and that would actually make the crowd get much softer and by the third song everyone was listening to us.
How is this for "Rock Star" treatment?
One rainy day in September we were driving in my old, beat-up Ford van to perform at this club. As fate would have it, the van broke down and we were lucky enough to be close to a phone booth. (Remember those?) Well, I called the club and said we would not be there tonight because we were broke down and stuck in the rain.
Little did I know, the club owner told the people that were already in the club that we needed help. Lo and behold, within 15 minutes we had two taxicabs (paid for by the club patrons) to transport us to the club -- one cab for me and Tom, and the other for all of the musical equipment -- and a tow truck to drag our poor old van to the club, too. Talk about an embarrassing entrance... but when we walked in, everyone applauded us and helped us bring our musical equipment out of the cab and get us set up.
The night was filled with magic, our performance was top notch, and we let the audience know how much we appreciated everything they did for us. I think we played at least an hour of unpaid overtime to show our gratitude. Back in those days, we made about $25 apiece per performance. Now that the gig is done, I am thinking that we will have to use half our pay to get a cab to get home, when all of a sudden one of the guys in the bar walks up to me and says, "Hey Steve, I fixed your van... you're good to go!"
This is just one of the many fantastic memories I have while working with Tom. He turned out to be a great songwriter and is still very active in the music business. I know one day we will play and write together again... His musicianship never ceases to amaze me! He will always be the brother I never had!
Let's fast forward to the 80's and 90's.
Music, Music, and more Music!
Yep, that is me: dead center with my gold record on. Ahh, that hair! Even though I am 100% Italian and Sicilian from New Jersey, I never really looked the part.
One of the best bands I ever had the privilege to be in: "The Game"
The lights, the harmonies, and my friend who went on all too soon, Jack Young (standing above me in the picture). He will always be with me and I am glad I got to tell him how much he meant to me.
Rockin' in the 80's
Here I am with my famous cup of Pepsi, I know this sounds strange being in a band and all, but to this day, I have never had a drink or drug of any kind. Left to right: Nic, Rich, Jack, and Steve
Oh my God! Don Johnson anyone? Or perhaps I was in my "Duran Duran" phase!
Well, now it is 1993 and I am so sick of gigging from one band to the next and going on tour with bands and being miles from home all the time so I said, "That's it, I am going do something else... no more music, I'm done, history, I'm outta here!"
And then the phone rings the next day and my life kinda changed forever...........
In the studio with Phil Collins
Hey, you mean all a studio musician does is go into a studio in New York or LA and just lay down tracks? No touring? I don't have to leave my dog for more then a few days? How much did you say you're going to pay me? I am working with who?
Wow! I think I will be a musician again!!!
So now I thought I was where I wanted to be. Opening up for major acts and hob-nobbing in and out of the studio with some of the major acts but still... something was missing...
I even did a commercial in Canada for Diet Pepsi and thought hmmm, maybe I should give acting a shot...
No...Let me stick to what I do best, hell, I ain't no actor!
One of my favorite groups of the 70's I got to open up for a few times was "America!" Tin Man, Horse with No Name, Sister Golden Hair, and Ventura Highway, just to name a few.
And to be able to sing with these guys was beyond thrilling!
May 1998
So here I am making tons of cash, living in New York City, buying the best of everything and then I realized something...
I actually hated the person I became.
All my life I was pushed to believe that the only way a man could be successful was to have a lot of money! Man, was I wrong! I had everything a man could want or ever ask for except for one thing, the thing that to this day has always eluded me... Happiness. And after two failed suicide attempts, I knew something had to change....
Life can be funny sometimes and as I get older I realize the things I want are not really the things I need.
So now it is 1998, I released my first CD with my own original works and I hear it being played on the local and college radio stations.
I start playing all the dives in the Village and on Bleecker Street from Kenny's Castaways to The Bottom Line. As I am playing, I see all the pictures on the wall of the people that played here years before I did. Everyone from Billy Joel to Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, and it seems the list was endless.
Now I am starting to get burnt out big time with studio sessions all day and playing the club scene at night.
They say the strangest things happen in New York City and believe me, that's an understatement! As I was leaving a gig in the village, it was about 3 a.m. Any musician who plays in the Village or the City knows that you usually don't even start the gig till at least 11 p.m.
So I am walking to my car with my acoustic guitar and feeling pretty good about the way the gig went and it seemed like it was taking forever to find my car. New York City blocks go on forever, but here I am about 100 feet from my car when all of a sudden I start to get a very uneasy feeling.
Now it is true that Greenwich Village is a pretty safe place at night, but as anyone knows, anything can happen at any time. So I start walking a little faster because I am thinking at this point I am going to get rolled, and goodbye acoustic guitar!
I am starting to realize that whatever is right behind me will have to do something soon because I can actually feel someone breathing close to the back of my neck. Very creepy and now I am in flight or fight mode. As I turn around very quickly to confront this person, I could not believe my eyes.....
It was a llama! Yes, you read right... a freakin' llama.
This guy was walking his pet llama in the Village at 3 a.m.
Apparently it liked the cologne I was wearing, or it thought I was cute, considering the guy told me that he was a she!
I said to him, "I thought I was about to get mugged, and now here I am on Wild Kingdom!" He told me many people have exotic animals that live in New York, and boy, was he right. I had gone to the library the next day thinking that he might be slightly exaggerating, until I read about a guy keeping an alligator in his apartment and another person keeping a tame tiger!
Truth is stranger than fiction, and if you look it up you will see how many people get arrested each year for owning pets from rattlesnakes to huge pythons!
Yes, New York is a very exciting but strange place!
Next Chapter
So now it is June of '98, and I am in a dead end relationship with a girl I was living with for all the wrong reasons. It mainly was a physical relationship, but we all know even the best lovemaking has to end sometime and then you need this thing called substance.
It was great while it lasted, but I realized I needed something more because afterwards I just felt very alone, even when she was in the same room with me. Here I was living a lie and thinking things will change, but I knew deep in my heart that the only way things change is if... "You change them yourself."
So now we both agree we were better off as friends, but after we stopped seeing each other we were never friends again.
Ok, I am back to being single, making roughly about 4 grand a week, going to the Woodbridge Shopping Mall and buying all things I have no use for except to make the statement that I am able to.
I started to become everything I despised in a person and now I was becoming that person.
I completely lost touch with who I was and why I got into the music business to begin with. Everything in my life revolved around money, women, and buying the latest gadgets to show off to people that I didn't even like in the first place.
Time to see the shrink! I was told I am bipolar or as they like to say, manic-depressive! I said, "How the hell could I be depressed when I have everything I could ever want right now?"
The doc said, "Steve... are you happy?"
I skirted the issue for about five minutes and he kept coming back to that same question... "Are you happy?"
I said loudly, "No! I am not!"
He said, "When was the last time you remember being happy?"
I thought about that for a while and I said, "I honestly don't remember."
Right then and there it hit me like a ton of bricks and I realized just how far gone I was.
He wanted to put me on everything from Prozac to lithium, but I said no!
The doctor said one last thing as I was leaving...
He said, "If you are not going to take any meds, then you need a change of scenery. You need to get away from everything that is familiar to you."
I said, "Sure... I will just leave tomorrow," and walked out the door.
Of course I didn't leave... thinking I knew better than the doctor, and thought that I could make my depression just go away. Well, one night while I was driving along the Jersey coast I decided the world was better off without me. I had a 1974 yellow Dodge Challenger and all I kept thinking was about this movie called "Vanishing Point." I figured if I was going to go out it would look like a total accident and no one would ever know the pain I was in. What a totally selfish thing to do, but sometimes it is very hard to see the forest through the trees.
The last thing I remember is heading off the road and then the paramedics waking me up.
I don't know how I did not get one scratch on me, because as you know this car did not have air bags -- they weren't even invented back in '74.
Call it Divine intervention or whatever you will, but the point is that I survived for a reason... although to this day I still don't know what that is.
The car was totaled and I was all right (which made even less sense to me) but I made a promise to the man upstairs that I would never do anything like that again and that I was very sorry.
One week later, I went into church, got my blessings from Father O'Malley, rented a Nissan Pathfinder and a U-Haul trailer, took with me my guitars, keyboards, and of course the love of my life (my Great Dane Comet) who seemed to be as happy to leave as I was.
Next Stop: Hollywood California!
Yes, I had finally left my comfort zone and started a brand new life........
I am driving alone, cross-country with my Great Dane and every mile I put between me and New Jersey will finally put an end to the pain I am in. I feel like a rock has been lifted from my chest as I see the California border!
Here I am in Sunny California, and everything is going to be perfect right?
Wrong...
I am running out of money fast, there are way too many actors in this town and not enough work, and I just paid $1,200 to be in the Screen Actors Guild. No girlfriend, no family, and my pride won't let me turn around and go back home. The rent is due, I am living on Mac and Cheese, and I see no way out of this situation...
Then the phone rings. It's a call from "Paramount Pictures" .......... To be Continued......
"Hello... yes, this is Stephen.
"Ok, I will be there tomorrow..." Hmmmm, Melrose Avenue.
Did she just say Paramount Pictures?
What the hell is a "Thomas Guide" anyway?
Ok, here I am, now where do I go on this huge lot?
Wow! Everything on the set of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" looks so real. I can't believe all this stuff is not made of metal!
And as I am going through the station's corridors I felt a hand on the back of my shoulders and a man saying in a very distinctive voice...
"Welcome to Plywood City."
I didn't need an introduction as I immediately recognized his voice and there I was hugging Avery Brooks, "Captain Sisko," and that was the start of me playing all kinds of aliens and doing some of my very first stunts on "Deep Space Nine".
This picture came directly from an article about the Makeup of Star Trek in the Smithsonian Magazine.
I got my "nose job" from master makeup effects artist Michael Westmore, who did the makeup for everything from "The Munsters" to "Rocky!"
Here I am, 3000 miles away from home, sitting in the Captain's chair of the Defiant on "Deep Space Nine." What a rush!
That lasted for a couple of years. As "Deep Space Nine" was coming to a close (yes, I was on the very last episode), I figured it was time to look for some more work as I was going to be out of a job real soon. Then, I was told that Merri Howard (Executive Producer) wanted to see me and I always get nervous when dealing the "Big Brass."
Tom in wardrobe, ok, got it.
Man, I need a map just to get around this lot!
Ok, here I am. You want me to try this on?
Ok, this isn't really happening to me.
Wait, I am no longer going to be playing aliens, you're gonna see my face, and Paramount is making me a cast crewmember?
I am going to be a Starfleet officer? NO Way?!?
Yes way!!!
Here I was trying on my first uniform for the very first time! This pic was taken right in the dressing room of "Star Trek: Voyager!"
And now they made me cut my hair a little shorter, and this was taken right before my very first appearance on "Star Trek: Voyager!"
To be continued.......
I was on the set of Star Trek Voyager and Deep Space Nine years before those shows were even dreamed of.
My Dad, Remo Pisani, was the bartender on Bonanza from 1968 to 1970. He took me on the set with him at Paramount and Dan Blocker (Hoss), was the kindest person you could ever meet in your life...
The one story about human kindness that always sticks out in my mind was meeting Dan Blocker for the first time. Here was I, this little boy barely six years old, and in walks this towering Gentle Giant named "Hoss!"
Dan Blocker
Everyone was on break and Dan came up to my father and said "Remo, I need to talk to you..."
He said, "I just found out a few minutes ago that today is your birthday, and I am sorry I didn't know sooner." My Dad said, "That's ok, it's the thought that counts..."
Dan then said, "You're right Remo, and this is what I think of you," as he took off this watch he was wearing with the biggest diamonds and gold on it I have ever seen in my life. He put the watch on my father's wrist, hugged him and said "Happy birthday!"
He then picked me up and gave me a kiss on the cheek and a big hug and I think that was the highest elevation I had ever been at. I didn't want him to put me down as I thought I could see for miles!
I called my Dad from that exact set location 30 years later on my first day of "Deep Space Nine" and said, "Dad, do you remember taking me on the set of Bonanza with you"... he paused for a second, I felt a tear in my eye and he said... "I still have the watch."
Here is a picture of my Dad and Jack Lemmon from a few movies they did, and Sammy Davis Jr. from a Broadway play.
Ok Mom, let me get this straight... You are 9 years old, playing guitar, and then Babe Ruth walks in the studio to say hi?
Well, here we go... This is my mom playing the guitar at 9 with my two aunts -- check out the harmony blend as kids! My mom and my aunts start their song at exactly 5:15 into the clip. Right before then, the narrator says they are the proteges of the "Great Bambino!"
My mom and aunts, the DeMarco Sisters, performed on the Ed Sullivan show 26 times, more than any other act. My mother, Anne, is the one on the end, on the far right. The sisters started performing when the oldest three were 8, 6, and 4.
As you can see they're doing a perfect five-part harmony, with just a boom mike overhead. No digital mixing in the studio, and as you know Ed Sullivan was live TV at its best. None of the five could read a note of music! (I'm the same way.)
Appearance on "What's My Line?"
They went on to do solo projects in the 60's and 70's and they have a brand new CD that was released last year.
Here they are opening up for Frank Sinatra!
Frank said he wanted the two greatest acts to open up for him when he went on tour. He said, "I want a comedian and the best vocal harmony group out there." He chose The Demarco Sisters and Joey Bishop!
I can remember as a little boy going downstairs in the middle of the night and seeing my Mom playing cards with Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jackie Gleason, and so forth. But it was no big deal to me as a kid because I just thought of them as my extended family.
This is their most recent CD I found on Amazon!
The DeMarco Sisters: "It's Been a Long, Long Time"
And this is the MGM movie they did with Esther Williams. It was called "Skirts Ahoy!"
This is also where my Aunt Arlene met my Uncle Keefe Brasselle and they got married after this movie was made.
He had his own variety show in 1964 called "The Keefe Brasselle Variety Hour." His biggest role in a movie was The Eddie Cantor Story -- he played Eddie Cantor.
Here is the promo from Warner Bros Pictures! Just click here and you will see what an amazing job my uncle did playing Eddie Cantor: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi814481689/
(Did you see Jimmy Durante playing the piano in the background?)
Now we go to my Uncle Murray!
My Uncle Murray Hamilton was even praised by Steven Spielberg on the "Jaws" 25th Anniversary Edition.
Spielberg: "I have always been a fan of Murray Hamilton's ever since I saw him in the FBI story with Jimmy Stewart. I auditioned everyone else but him, as I knew how bad I wanted him as the mayor in Jaws."
Wow! That came from Spielberg himself and you can actually watch him saying it on camera when you access the special features on the DVD.
My uncle was in hundreds of films and TV episodes and was a great actor. He also had the lead role as Mr. Robinson in the classic movie The Graduate.
So yes, when you hear the Simon and Garfunkel song... "And here's to you Mrs. Robinson," I can say I am the nephew of Mr. Robinson....FOR REAL!
Yes, I even served my country at 17 years old and I was in a very elite unit: the 101st Airborne Division, Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.
Doing my 5 cherry jumps at Ft. Benning, Georgia was a lot of fun. I wasn't worried about jumping out of a plane, I was worried about the landing!
Coming home after basic training, I just wanted to rest, but my mom had one of her friends over and all I got was insulted!!!
Today, Jan 9th 2009, will be the most difficult day to get by as this is the part of the book where I write about losing both of my parents within three weeks of each other in 2004.
How could God do this to me?
I prayed and prayed, sent monies into the televangelists, continued to keep going to church as I always had but felt so betrayed....
The next chapter tells how I ran to God instead of from Him.
I believe there is a reason for everything...
Notes for book chapter 3
Was I the only one who felt that way?
I was in my car listening to the news and started crying.
How could I cry for someone I never knew? Someone I never met before...
Why did I feel such a loss and anger at the same time?
It was February 4th 1983. The last time I felt this type of loss was December 8th, 1980!
I took this picture of John about 6 months before his death.
My Uncle Murray lived at the Dakota also and would speak to John all the time. No security around John whatsoever, and he would always stop with Yoko and be happy to give you a pic. All he wanted was to be treated like was a regular New Yorker.
But here I was saying to myself, "This must be a mistake. Let me change the stations and then I will know that this is just a rumor."
Well, as I listened to each broadcast, my stomach felt sicker and then the reality set in.
Yes, Karen Carpenter died at the age of 33.
As I was driving back home, all the stations were playing the Carpenters' greatest hits, which made things even worse. I grew up with this group and loved their harmonies and songs. Now I have to break this to my Mom who had more of their albums than I did.
I put the TV on when I came home and saw a look on Richard Carpenter's face that I will never forget. It was a look of total loss and devastation as I know how close he was to his sister.
My sister and I are that close and she even sent me this pic a few years ago of us together in the tub. The caption read: "Whenever you're in hot water, I'll be there beside you."
My sister Lisa Brandi and me
Someone saved my life tonight.....
Yes, that was a big hit record for Elton John but a reality for me.
Chapter 8 out of 10.
Losing both my parents within 3 weeks of each other and I'm so close to joining them...
January, 2004
My Mom is taken to Rahway Hospital because she has a bad cold.
She is to be there for a couple of days just so the doctors can check her out.
It has now been 3 months later and she sounds fine on the phone but she is still there so I hop a flight to Newark Airport and see her.
I walk into the hospital room and there is something very different about her. She seemed very happy to see me but it was like it took her a while to even recognize me. She wasn't really eating much but she said she felt fine and for me not to worry.
I stayed with her for about 4 more days and called to see how she was doing... She was doing better, "much better" the doctor had said, but little did I know this was only the beginning of a lie.
My mother had contracted sepsis, which she caught in the hospital and was dying, only no one would tell me this.
My sister Lisa flies in to see my Mom and stays with her, and I tell her I will be coming home too, and she tells me not to.
She said I would not even recognize this person as being my mother because of her depleted physical condition.
I said, "What can we do? What did the doctors say?"
My sister paused for a second, started crying and said, "The doctors said there's no hope!"
I said, "I am coming anyway," and my sister said, "Don't Stephen, Mommy would not want you to see her this way."
"What are you talking about," I said, "you act like she already died," and my sister said as calmly as she could, "It's only a matter of time..."
I hung up the phone and screamed louder than I ever did in my life!
Nice one God!
Didn't see that one coming!
You give me the strength to be a stuntman and risk my life, and you give me the talent to rock 50,000 people.
Why would you take from me the one person I needed the most?
No answer... I never really get an answer when I talk to God.
Then the scenarios play over and over in my head... and all the "what if's" come into play.
My sister asked me what was the last thing I remember Mommy doing when I saw her last.
I said she gave me the sign of the cross as I was leaving the hospital and about to catch my flight.
Then my sister said... "That is how you are going to remember seeing Mommy for the last time."
With that, I hung up the phone and never felt so alone as I did that second.
July 27th
The funeral was short and sweet and the church was full of people that my Mom knew from years past or the girls she went to Bingo with.
The only person who wasn't at the funeral was me.
Given the condition I was in, there was no way I could face the reality of my Mother being buried. I said to myself, "Well... at least I have my Dad and we can console each other and be there for the painful days ahead."
Wrong again!
Almost three weeks to the day, my father passed away suddenly without any warning.
Thanks again Lord!
I can see how much you really care about me.
Hey God, I got an idea! Why don't you just make it three?!
Go ahead, you're the man, just take me too!
Better yet, I'll do your F'N job for you!
So with all the anger and rage I never knew I had in me, I proceeded to open the garage door, close it behind me, jump in my vehicle and turn the key!
As I was sitting in the car with the engine running I felt very justified as to what I was doing.
Now I am starting to get just a little sleepy and am hoping no one has seen me in the garage.
So I look out my rearview mirror, and lo and behold I see my Great Dane standing on his hind legs looking through the glass of the garage door almost as if he knows what I am doing.
He was the one gift from God I completely forgot about...
This dog, who was like a son to me, was all I had left and if I were to die, who would take care of him?
So like the song, "Someone saved my life tonight," God did send someone, and that someone had four paws...
I immediately shut off the ignition and went in the house and stayed there for almost 3 months. If I got hungry, I had the food delivered, but I completely shut myself off from the world.
Now the holidays were here and I made myself a promise. I would make myself go back out into the world and ask God to forgive me.
I just asked God for one small favor...
I said, "If you could, and I know you can, just let me see my Mom in my dreams and my Dad too! At least promise me that!"
Guess what?
God keeps his promises!
Last Chapter....
I look at life a lot differently now then I did before I started writing this book. The years seem to go by so much quicker than they did when I was younger. Yes, I miss my family and friends who have gone on before me, but I have also learned some very valuable lessons in life.
It took me almost 40 years to understand this but these are the things I need to share with you. The 2 stories I will never forget...
1. So here I am at services one Sunday morning and the rain just doesn't want to stop. Everyone is in a bad mood and half-listening to what the preacher had to say.
About half-way through the service, there was a man a few pews up from me sound asleep and snoring louder than Homer Simpson! The man was snoring so loud that most of the people around him starting laughing. Well, that woke the man up real fast and he was pissed.
Even the Preacher had a smile on his face, which didn't last too long when the angry old man stood up and said, "This is garbage, I have better things to do with my life than waste it in here."
Wow, the room went completely silent and you could hear a pin drop!
The man, now angrier than ever, shook his fist at the Preacher and said, "Hey, I can prove there is no God! I dare him to strike me dead in 10 seconds and I will start counting right now."
As the man was counting out loud, everyone was in their seats, shocked at what was happening.
When he hit the number 10, he said to the Preacher, "There ya go... I just proved to you there is no God!"
The Preacher walked down from the pulpit very sympathetic and said, "My son, the only thing you proved today is how patient God really is."
Not knowing what to say the man just sat right back down till the end of the service.
2. This was very hard for me to come to terms with, but there is no denying the rules of the game...
Do you realize that you and I, and everyone else on this planet owns nothing?
I said to myself, "Wait a second, Steve, you're really off base on this one"... but I wasn't. As a matter of fact, for the first time in my life, I accepted the reality of the situation. I kept going back and forth with my theory and the end result was always the same.
"Wait a second," I said, "I own my cars, I have the pink slips to prove it. I am in debt to no one and own everything outright... Correct???"
Wrong!
I don't even own the shirt on my back! I am just renting these things for what ever time I have left on this planet.
Fight as I will, there is no getting around it. We are all on a certain time-line, of which no one knows when they will be leaving. I now see this earthly life as a temporary rest stop as this is only the beginning....
Realizing the less materialistic I become, the happier I am. I barely owned anything as a kid but I sure had a good time just hanging out with friends and family. Somewhere in my life, I lost those things that were really important to me, but I seem to be getting back on track!
I guess the greatest wake-up call I got was when I talked with my Pastor and these were his words...
He said "Stephen, there are people in life who get everything they ever wanted. The mansion, the cars, the yachts, the bank accounts and all the coolest toys you could ever own... But they only have them for a short time."
I said, "What do you mean? They can keep those things forever..."
He looked at me and shook his head and said these words I will never forget...
"They keep these things forever? Let me ask you something, Stephen:
"When was the last time you saw a U-Haul riding behind a hearse?"
Now my goals have changed, and I'm a better person for it.
I have become more of a giver, rather than a taker. A better listener, and realize I don't always have to have the last word.
When someone gets me upset I will watch what I say to them, as they may not be around tomorrow....
Yes, it took me 40 years of my life to become this person, but the point is I became this person, and have a lot of catching up to do...
Love has to come from within because if I don't love myself, how can I love someone else?
I know Mom and Dad will always be with me no matter where I go in life.
Anne DeMarco Rose and Remo Pisani
Thank you all for reading and letting me share my life with you and although and this is my final entry,
The Journey has just begun...
