How I spent my lunch hour on May 28.
Every day now and for some time now, someone turns 100. It is quite an achievement. A life of learning, experiencing, gaining, losing, hurting and celebrating.
There are sleepless nights and days filled with rest.
Ultimately, it is one of teaching, sharing, showing, and loving.
No one gets to turn 100 without wisdom and love. It is, in my opinion, an impossible feat to do. Wisdom and love are the orchestra that make living 100 years possible.
Today was Joe Decosimo’s one hundredth birthday. I spent my lunchtime enjoying lasagna and then listening.
For almost one hour, people you have and people you have not heard of spoke with reverence and regard for Mr. Decosimo.
The reason is that if Joe Decosimo were to speak of them, he would be talking with the same reverence, the same regard, the same love. Well, in fact, for many of our lives, decades, he has done just that.
My father was an entrepreneur. Many have accomplished more than him. He would have been the first to say how true that is.
My dad, though, did know the overwhelming presence of being awake every hour of the day. At 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the same day, he was working, sweating and giving his endeavors all he had. He knew the meaning of “No” and the saving grace of “Yes”.
He knew about the thrill of activity and the dreadful quiet of absolutely no noise, but the buzz of the lightbulbs—no one needing you or your business.
People speak about the lesson of meeting a payroll. My father knew the excruciating feeling of
not meeting a payroll and having good people still depend on you.
My father started three businesses and was blessed to see them grow.
One night, in my father’s last year of life, he had emphysema and was growing weaker, Joe Decosimo campaigned for UTC’s Business School to honor my father as the entrepreneur he was.
My father always admired Joe Decosimo. My dad, who knew how tough business could be, said an accountant seldom started a business. They knew how tough it was to “make it”. My father said that one had to be a little ignorant of what could happen, or they would never start one. An accountant, he said, was the least ignorant of all; he or she knew what could happen.
Joe is a brilliant man, but his enthusiasm for life propelled him into business. Not to mention, he had nine children. He had to “make it”.
Make it, he did.
As I said, Mr. Decosimo campaigned for my dad to receive some recognition for his business life. That night, my dad joined Bob Corker and Ed Jolley, recognized as entrepreneurs.
My parents’ children and some grandchildren were there. My father gave a one-sentence recognition, as his lungs were weak, he chose his sudden words carefully.
“I just always liked people”, my father said, and with that, he sat back down.
Our family still remembers that moment as if it were yesterday.
So, thank you, Mr. Decosimo, thank you for a gift one could never wrap or repay.
Joe Decosimo likes people, too.
I got to watch that yesterday. A hundred years of liking people. It adds up to a room filled with reverence and a room filled with friends.
The best present for Mr. Decosimo was not lunch, however.
He spent time with his wife of a lifetime and got to hold her hand.
I am afraid lunch could not top that gift. That one is precious and rare.
Like lunch, though, it was a gift well earned,
Earned by a hundred years of liking people.
Loving people and yes, revering people, some you would know, some you wouldn’t.
But to Joe Decosimo, they are all the same. Worth his life getting to know.
So, my lunch was probably better than yours on May 28.
I watched a century unfold in front of me. Maybe in fact, just a little bit more.
Today, well, it’s just back to tacos….
To all the Decosimo family: Thank you! Thank you for including us.
Mr. Decosimo, thank you for liking my dad. He liked you a lot too.
Glenn Morris
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Glenn Morris did a great job in highlighting Mr. Decosimo's outstanding character. Mr. and Mrs. Decosimo did such a wonderful and loving job of raising their children and there is legion of fans of this family.
My mother and father (Jeanne and Tom Geraghty) held them both in high esteem and it is a joy to see this celebration.
Leah Geraghty