Crispin Bottari

To my Uncle Cris,
A very special person throughout my life .
With Love and wonderful Memories
Eileen M Bottari.

I have known Cris as my “adoptive father” since 1959 when I was a child in kindergarten at PS131 in Jamaica, Queens. One day, I brought his wonderful daughter, Christine, home to meet my mother with the intention of marrying her. I went so far as to purchase an actual diamond engagement ring for 25 cents from another kid who lived on the corner, who as it turned out, had stolen the very expensive ring from his mother’s purse and sold it to me at a great discount! I gave the ring to Christine and at the mature age of 5, asked for her hand in.marriage. Imagine my surprise when my parents and Christine’s parents showed up at my door the next day to inquire about what I thought was not only a great purchase but a selfless act of love! As the saying goes, I had a lot of explaining to do! Since that meeting of our two families, the Bottari’s and the Savarese’s were one big extended family. As far as I was concerned, I had 5 other sisters and to this day, I feel the same way. We would take vacations together (imagine two families sharing 10 kids between them going anywhere!) and throughout the years shared our lives with one another. Cris and Ann were my “adoptive parents” and to this day I feel the same way. I love them both deeply and cherished the sense of having the benefit of having such an extended family in my life. In thinking back over the years, I have a confession to make to Cris, who was summoned one night in the early 1970’s at 2 o’clock in the morning to pick me, his girls and my sisters and some friends up after I borrowed his car and got it stuck in the mud in upstate New York one summer night. When he arrived to get us, what he saw was his treasured Ford Country Squire station wagon sticking straight up in the air at a 90 degree angle, the bottom half of the car stuck in a sink hole of mud! A true monument to stupidity if there ever was one! It required a tow truck to be pulled out and took the better part of the next day for me to hose the mud out from every nook and cranny! (My confession–Cris, truth be told, yes, a little alcohol was involved.) Cris never yelled, never screamed. He took the incident in stride as the simple act of stupidity it was on my part. This was the man I knew Cris to be–warm, loving, even tempered, and a great sense of humor! I will miss him dearly. To my extended Bottari family, I share the deep pain of your loss and will always cherish the wonderful times we shared with the wonderful man that was your dear father.
With our love and condolences, George & Paula Savarese