We had a full year to prepare for this moment; we lived it in our minds- perhaps hundreds of times. So you would think we were prepared. But we are not. Our lives will never be the same.
Our thanksgiving will be less thankful. Our Christmas will be less merry. But we, the Alves & Simoes, will adapt, we will move forward, we will carry his memory with us forever. This individual that we honor here today, My cunhado, Manuel, Yes you heard me right, "cunhado" and not brother in law. Brother in law, in my view, means what it says. The law doesn't make you family, your actions or lack of such, determines whether your family or not. And he was. For 30 years this individual never let me down. If I needed him, he was there; he was there for all of us. A few months back I needed information about how to change a power steering pump. He said I can't change it for you but I can tell you how to do it and we did it together. Even ill, he was willing to help, this is the kind of person he was. I feel much honored to call him my friend, I just wish I could have done more for him. Donating one of my kidneys could have been one of the easiest things to do, only if I had an extra pair of lungs. When Lucylene was stricken with a brain Aneurysm in Portugal this summer, they, my sister an Manuel, were the first to offer financial assistance, followed by my 2 brothers and sister Lucia. My parents would have been proud. The Almeida family once again was there for us. We have been blessed to have all of you in our lives. Unfortunately, we never made the trip to Portugal together as we planned. But Portugal came to him, through his mother and his sister; they are now part of our family and will be given all the assistance we can afford to give them. I give you my word. My dear friend Manuel now set sail on this voyage of no return but he will take with him my deepest gratitude, my deepest respect. And I will miss you until we meet again.
