Post-Epilog 3

On January 17, 2015, Angela’s big brother Angelo passed away, after his brave survival of thirty-one years following a hockey accident that had left him in a wheelchair. Later on the night of his passing, at 2:00 AM in the morning, our phone rang twice. When I answered, there was no answer.

For years, we had been conditioned to jump whenever the phone rang, thinking it might be another of the many emergencies that Angelo endured. Obviously, that was no longer the case.

The next day, when I told Angie about the phone call, she said “That was Angela, telling us that Angelo made it OK!”.

You can believe what you like, but I believe it was Angela, and that she and Angelo are together again, fishing, playing hockey, and maybe arguing (strongly discussing?) some point about music or sports.

On May 29, 2015, at Amherst High School’s annual awards assembly, Angelina Simon became the nineteenth recipient of the school’s Angela Coniglio Memorial Scholarship. Angelina is a member of the National Honor Society, and an Honor Roll student in each of her four years at Amherst.

Angelina has volunteered for many community programs, including Laxing (Lacrossing) for Mia, Blue for Ben, and Pink the Field, and has made blankets and other gifts for children patients at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She was on the girls’ Varsity Soccer Team for four years, and also played on the Amherst girls’ Varsity Lacrosse Team for four years, serving as team captain in her junior and senior years. Angelina received both an Athletic and an Academic Scholarship to Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she will play Lacrosse, and study Early Childhood Education.

Angelina wrote a beautiful note to us after accepting her scholarship, Click HERE to read it.

Later, after Angelina's award was given, the 2014 recipient of the Angela Coniglio Memorial Scholarship, Taylor Balser (at right), stopped me to say hello. We chatted about Taylor’s first year at Mercyhurst, the same college that Angelina Simon will attend, and Taylor revealed another connection she has with Angelina. Angelina’s father, Tony Simon, is Taylor’s grandfather. Angelina is Taylor’s Aunt!

In late May and early June 2016, we visited our ancestral country, Sicily, where Angela’s forebears, paternal and maternal, were born. We placed her ashes, along with those of her brother Angelo, there in the Tyrrhenian Sea: a return to their roots.