Meet my friends from the beach. Carmella, her son Aiden and her brother Mario.

A while ago I talked about one of my really good friends Walter. He owns this little Italian restaurant on the beach. He also has ACL> accute mylogenic leukemia. He had a bone marrow transplant just before Christmas. His sister Carmella was his donor. (pictured with her brother Mario and son Aiden) Lets just say Walter is having a really tough time and may have Graph Host disease. Not good. He was having a really rough day today. I drove Mario to the airport. I also pick him up when he comes in to town on Sundays.

This illness has affected the whole family so deeply. It's been going on since last June. Unbelievable. Mario lives and works in DC. He works as a maintenance supervisor in the Senate building. The 3 - 11:30 pm shift. He was late for work again today. He took yesterday off . He has no leave, vacation or anything else left. It has all gone to keeping his brothers restaurant open so Walter has some way to keep his house, etc. He has to be able to pay his bills. Mario has been down at least every 2 weeks since Walter got sick. He has been down the last 4 weeks in a row. 2 weeks over Christmas. The staff has been trying to keep it going , but they are young. And the old saying holds true. " While the cats away the mice will play" I feel really bad for the whole family. Walter's kids are great. They are 16 and 19. His oldest is a freshman at college. The younger one is kind of adrift. Mario is trying to do everything he can for everyone. But they miss their Dad. He raised them alone.
Carmella just had a baby 4 months ago. So she is busy with a 4 year old and a new born. Cute kids. Aiden is a dream. He and I went and explored the mardi gras vendors and had a blast. We banged the African drums, looked in all the vendors and he kept saying :don''t touch" I was really impressed. Then a street musician gave him a tambourine, I played the drums and the musician sang. We had such a nice adventure together. Then we listened to some music and danced. Fun kid. He makes me want grandkids.

So now you have met Mario. He and I really like each other. But alas he doesn't live here anymore. And has no plans to move back. I really wish I could do more to help him cope with all this. But he just keeps going and will do anything to help his younger brother. I will just continue to listen and let him vent. Thats all I can do.