Generations of blessings — New life brings joy, while death reminds son of father’s advise: ‘Stay humble’
Ava was born one day and Buddy died the next. Ava’s dad was funny about it and Buddy’s son was wistful, and I know they’re both grateful for what they have, be it a beautiful baby girl with the world ahead of her or a lifetime’s worth of memories, values and advice.
Ava Yatooma showed up at 11:27 a.m. April 10. Her parents are Nicole and Norman — he being the lawyer who claims the police and the ex-mayor short-changed the Tamara Greene murder investigation, and she being the saint who puts up with him.
Andrew (Buddy) Krasula, 94, passed away at 9:53 p.m. April 11. Among his four children is local entrepreneur Jack Krasula, whose dad would conclude their daily phone conversations with, “Stay humble.”
Norman Yatooma, who grew up the oldest of four boys, now finds himself with four girls — and, as he keeps reminding himself, four weddings in his future.
“Before I became a dad,” he says, “a friend told me that being a father of daughters is the richest blessing a man could ask for.” The same friend corrected himself after the arrival of 6-pound, 10-ounce Ava: “He meant to say, it’s a blessing that only the richest of men could ask for.”
Either way, Yatooma is feeling fortunate, which is the good news. “The bad news,” he says, “is if you owe me money, I’m coming to get it.
“If I owe you money, thanks in advance for writing it off.”
Where money is concerned, Buddy Krasula never made a lot. He was a mailman in Chicago. Jack has done well — he sold his IT company in 2002 for $50 million — but it wasn’t the figure that impressed his father. It was the drive and determination that built the business.
Buddy was “a compass for my life,” Jack says, and his words to live by have become his son’s.
“Work to strengthen your faith every day,” Buddy would say.
“Be slow to judge and quick to forgive.”
“Do the hardest thing first every morning while your mind is fresh and unencumbered.”
“Never cut what you can untie.”
“You can’t eat the ambiance.”
Somebody needs to remind Norman Yatooma of that last one in about 25 years.
http://detnews.com/article/20100420/OPINION03/4200338/Generations-of-blessings
