Thanksgiving 2003
Seated: My mother, Joan, and my father, Nick, with our daughter Marni..
Standing: Madeline, Tara, Frank, Tom, and me.
Nicholas F. Treppiedi
January 13, 1938 - June 7, 2004
(photo taken in June 2002, holding his first granddaughter, Madeline)
My father was born in South Philadelphia in 1937, the youngest child of Maria (nee Montanaro) and Francesco Treppiedi, who emigrated to the U.S. from Italy on Christmas Day in 1920. Like most children of immigrants, my dad worked very hard and invested his money wisely, and in essence, had a more comfortable life than his parents did.
Dad excelled in math and science and got his Bachelor of Science from Temple University. He worked for various companies as a computer engineer (such as SmithKline French), and spent the majority of his career at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).
He also owned and operated a discount beauty supply business for 16 years, employing his sister Anna as manager, my brother, mother and myself as occasional part-time help, and some of my cousins as well.
He made his friends and coworkers laugh like hell - and see alternate points of view - with his witty observations about damn near any topic you could challenge him with.
He loved his family more than anything, reveling in family parties where he played cards with his parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. He was even still in touch with his godparents regularly until his death. He was also sort of the family historian, very often bringing his movie camera or still camera to record everyone's happy faces for posterity. He missed his parents, aunts & uncles, one very dear cousin and one sister terribly, as one by one each passed on.
He worked very hard to provide a good life for us and was always, always the one we turned to for financial advice. I even had a dream after his death that I was holding some old, valuable coins, looking around for him to ask what I should do with them.
My dad was the youngest of three, and leaves behind his oldest sister, Gilda. His sister Anna passed away in 1997. In addition to my mother, brother, and our spouses and kids, he also is survived by many friends, nieces and nephews, including his godsons Joseph Card and Nicholas Bertolino, and goddaughter Nancy Keys.
Complications from Type II diabetes took my father's life, and oddly, we really didn't know nearly enough about the disease until recent years. My brother and I are both now faced with the prospect of preventing or at least delaying the onset of Type II diabetes in ourselves. I myself had gestational diabetes while I was pregnant, and I did great during the pregnancy but went back to my old ways afterwards. So - I can't speak for my brother, but so far I'm failing miserably... If you are also facing diabetes or love someone who is, please visit the link below and read all you can - educating yourself might save your life or someone else's.
