How many of the widowed folks out there keep in contact with their spouse’s relatives? Mario’s mom passed away in 2007 and his grandparents also passed after we’d made the move up to Oregon, but he kept in touch with his aunt (his mom’s sister) and cousin who also ended up in Oregon as well as his dad … who also ended up in Oregon. I keep in touch with his aunt and cousin and consider them family.

His dad ended up here by way of losing pretty much everything he owned in the Paradise fire in California in 2018. He and his neighbors barely made it out of that fire. He didn’t hesitate to start looking for a home close to us after that happened. He still says to this day that the fire was the best thing that ever happened to him. His insurance paid for everything and he received a decent amount of money from the group lawsuit against the power company, but most importantly, he got to spend Mario’s last 4 years with him.

His dad ended up only about 20 minutes north of us and he and his dad did spend a lot of time together, which I was glad for.

So after Mario passed, I became the one to spend time with his dad and he considers me the daughter he never had. Losing my own dad last summer was pretty tough, so Tony really is my second dad.

When he first moved up here, he was already retired and looking for things to occupy his time, but also wanted to do something where he could make a difference. He stumbled upon a local organization that was working on creating a nice park surrounding a man made pond just down the road from where he lived. He started volunteering at the pond, doing extensive manual labor clearing years of brush and trees to make way for the new plan for the park, which included a mile long loop of trails, among other features.

Over the last 7 years he probably logged over 10,000 volunteer hours along with other volunteers to make the new park a real gem. They even named a part of the trail after him. And because of all of his work there, he was even recognized as a Rural Community Builder of Oregon and Siskiyou County.

Thursday evening, he invited me to go to the volunteer appreciation dinner that the Friends of Ford’s Pond organization was putting on. About 40 folks showed up to the catered dinner. Everyone knew Tony.

All of of his hard work definitely did make a difference and Ford’s Pond is a beautiful park and local attraction.

Unfortunately, he’s now sidelined from the work he really loves doing because of degenerative disc disease, but he still does what he can at the park.

It’s funny, because Mario was the polar opposite when it came to manual labor … he’d do anything to avoid it!

There have been a few occasions where I’ve done manual labor as part of volunteering for a cause, but typically, my form of volunteering comes in utilizing my skills in graphic or web design, stepping up to take care of wayward cats, or lately, helping out with local ghost/history tours!

I do find volunteering a worthwhile endeavor. For folks that can find a local cause or organization to support, it’s a rewarding use of your time.