As some of you know, babe and his sister very suddenly lost their father the other day. The adjustment has been ... non-existent because how do you even adjust to that?

Dad lived in another country and with the pandemic it made visits almost impossible. How easy it would be to tell yourself he's off on another adventure and you'll get a text any day now...

The distance meant we got to spend precious few hours all together. He only got to meet Eva two or three times, and honestly hadn't met ME many more times than that.

And even then most of that time was spent hanging out with Paolo at the hospital.

Eventful times full of laughs, but stressful and heartbreakingly few.

I know Pao will always wish there had been more, that we had all gotten the opportunity for closeness, for relaxation, inside jokes, family stories, for Eva to go running into Abuelos arms just once

...for familiarty in the truest sense...

But let's talk about that; about the familiarity in the unfamiliar - because whether Pao realizes it or not, we already have that.

Nothing about Roberto felt like a stranger when I met him. I knew so many of his mannerisms & his speech patterns.

I had met them all in Paolo.

He was full of easy swag, charm, and a sense of playfulness.

I had already befriended that in Paolo.

He radiated warmth and energy and had this way of making everyone around him feel at ease, regardless of how HE was feeling.

Paolo? Check. Iani? Check.

He was always ready with that Fazio smile... it's an almost-too-big grin that welcomes more than a little bit of mischief.

It was that smile that first killed me about Pao. Iani has it. So does Eva. Don't even get me started about Beni when he laughs.

It's that same grin. They all have it ...

Echo after echo, they are all a little bit Roberto.

I won't ever get to know him personally with as much closeness as we all would have wanted. Life just didn't allow for that.

But he won't ever be unfamiliar. He will never be a stranger.

I cant wait to get to know him better through Eva as she grows up.

Echo after echo, they are all a little bit Roberto.