I wish I could have remembered your father's jokes
to write about; all I see is his elf face telling them and chuckling
away!
The last time I saw George Cokinos, he was swinging in the hammock in
his backyard. As always, he made you feel good just to be around him—
kidding around with the children, telling jokes, giving them “jobs”,
and generally helping everyone have FUN. I know he must have had his
share of sadness sometime, but I sure never saw it. Before I left
that day, he jumped up and got out his tractor lawn mower to give
William and Keagan a ride, and I remember marveling that he had
ridden me around the same way probably almost forty years before,
stepping on the gas, and pretending to almost tip over. His energy,
enthusiasm, and optimism were contagious, and you always felt that
nothing terrible could happen when he was around, or if it did, it
wouldn’t be so bad in the end.
You also cannot think of George Cokinos without thinking of the
beach. It was his habitat. When we went to visit him there about
fourteen years ago, I remember how much he reminisced about the long
ago days when he and his wife and two babies would go down to the
beach for the day and picnic there, and how those were the happiest
times for him. I always remembered this, since I know now how much
those first years mean to me as well—of love and babies, and, even if
you are poor, feeling rich in family. This feeling of newness and
wonder at the sheer blessedness of life never seemed to leave George
Cokinos. Even in his death, he was living well, and now that he is
gone, he leaves behind children, grandchildren, family, and friends,
and even friends of children like me, who are lucky to have known him.
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