The Story of John and Marie
Why 1927? No, I'm not THAT old! It's the year my dad was born. I never really met his parents, John and Marie. Their story is an interesting one.
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John came to America working as a hand on a ship from Palestine. Although he was Greek it's unclear why he was in Palestine. John met up with family in America, reports say they were very Greek and were involved in the Greek Orthodox church. This is where the story takes a turn. John met and fell in love with a young Irish woman, Marie Downs. At the time this was a big problem. Mostly a religious problem. Marie was Catholic and John was Greek Orthodox. John made the decision to convert to Catholicism and changed his last name to something more "American". The result was the Greek side disowned him and his wife. After a couple years they were expecting their first child, my dad. Here's the twist, Marie died soon after my dad was born. John was alone with a newborn, with no family. After this the story gets lost. Eventually, John remarries, has another son and my father was raised in this blended family. The story is, John came to see me a few days after I was born. He had scheduled a vacation and upon returning, died of a heart attack the next day. We met once, he was 50.
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"1927" is to remind me I got to do a lot of cool things my dad never did. We were very close, he passed at 49. Each product has a name attached, it's the name of a town in Ireland. That's for Marie. Just in case you were wondering "why".