The Nazis couldn’t kill Nicola “Nic” DiRito when he was fighting against fascists in Occupied Italy as a teenager during World War Two, but today Nic died of old age at 92 in Delaware.  As an Italian-American, whose family on my mother’s side hailed from the same province of Abruzzo as Nic, I had first met him when I was assigned to cover his 90th birthday party in 2017, which also happened to be my 31st birthday. Despite being a strange labor reporter, who was there to cover his birthday party, Nic insisted that we celebrate my birthday as well as his party; getting the crowd of total strangers at his party to sing Happy Birthday to me as I blushed.  

This was Nic at his core:  Someone, who had nothing, risked his life for freedom and shared whatever joy he had in his life with others. Arriving in the US in 1957 speaking very little English and no children, Nic built a family out of strangers.  In death, we build all monuments, both emotional and physical to commemorate people so that love will continue to inspire the living.