Eulogy

Edward William Borgia was born on August 12, 1928 in Manhattan, NYC to Nicholas Fillip Borgia and Giuseppina Marie Vita Borgia. He was their 2nd child having an older daughter Eleanor and later another daughter named Joan would join their family. Both Nick and Josie were the children of Italian immigrants and they raised their family in the Tenements in the Italian neighborhoods of New York. These tenements would be called Slums today. Not much more than a rectangular area with some walls that divided the small area into living and sleeping quarters. They always lived on the top floor of the tenements since that was cheaper than the lower, easier to get to floors. There were no elevators and they had to climb the flights of stairs to reach their home. They were not a wealthy family. Dad remembered coming home from school and going out door to door to sell the baked goods that Grandma had made that day. He delivered newspapers, delivered milk…all to supplement the family’s meager income. Dad told us of packing up and leaving in the middle of the night before they could be evicted. They moved throughout the Burroughs of New York City…Queens, Manhattan, Harlem and the Bronx. Dad vowed that when he had a family they would never live the way he had. Grandma inherited a home on Staten Island, NY from her mother and the family had a stable home at last.
Edward went to High School at Newdorp High School, Staten Island. It was there that he learned to play the trumpet with the school band using an instrument that belonged to the school. His father had hoped he would follow in his footsteps and learn to play the violin. They gave him money to go and take violin lessons but he didn’t want to play the violin and that money never found its way to the teacher’s pocketbook because Ed never showed up to take the lessons. Dad became pretty good at playing the trumpet though and spent the summer he turned 15 in the Adirondacks playing in the band at one of the resorts where the “rich people” went for vacation. Dad graduated from high school in 1945 and immediately enlisted in the Coast Guard. It was his hope to play the trumpet in their band but soon after enlisting, World War 2 ended and the band was no longer required. He stayed in the Coast Guard for 3 years during which time he went on one of Admiral Byrd’s expeditions to Antarctica. After he returned home his father contracted Rheumatic Fever. During his illness he was treated and helped by a Chiropractor and Dad became committed to that career. He researched and learned that one of the best schools was in CA and almost as important it wouldn’t have the cold winters of New York so he came out west to attend the Los Angeles Chiropractic College on the GI Bill. He graduated with his Doctorate in August of 1952, a few days after his 23rd birthday. 6 weeks later his Father succumbed to the rheumatic fever and the support of his mother and younger sister fell to him. He wanted to take them out to California so they went to visit her cousins who had already moved to Palo Alto. Remember…He hated the cold and snowy NY winters and never wanted to go back to the East to live. He was anxious to live in CA where he had enjoyed the milder weather during his years at school. So Grandma sold her home on Staten Island and they bought a small home in Palo Alto. The family lived in the back of the house and a Chiropractic office was setup in the front of the house.
About this time Edward decided it was time to settle down and mentioned that to a friend of his that he met at the YMCA. His friend told him about a Young Adult Group at the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church called “The Kayaks”. Through this group the friend had met an amazing girl from New York who was a Kindergarten teacher. Her name was Shirley Smith and he was thinking of pursuing a more serious relationship. He invited Ed along so that maybe he could do the same….and Ed did…exactly the same and the amazing girl, Shirley and Ed were married Nov 27, 1954. In April of 1956 Ed and Shirley became parents of their first child, Sheri and then Philip joined the family 2 years later. At this time Ed was frustrated with the church they were attending and had talked with one of his patients about the church he belonged to…the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS. He liked what he heard and asked the patient if he could talk to someone to learn more about the church. Well, Dad waited and waited and no one contacted him. Then one day there was a knock at the door and when Mom opened the door 2 Mormon missionaries were on the doorstep. She explained that she was perfectly happy with her church but that her husband was interested in hearing more about the Mormon Church so could they please come back? Of course they did and the family joined the church on Sept. 6, 1958, (My Grandmother never could understand what kind of a church would tell you that you couldn’t have wine with dinner, not even a little sip…remember she was a full blooded Italian). 14 month after their baptism Todd joined our family and 10 months later our family of 5 was sealed together for time and all eternity in the Los Angeles Temple. In 1961 Scott was born and I remember Dad coming in to wake me up to tell me that the baby had arrived and I was extremely disappointed that it was a 3rd brother.
Shortly after Scott’s birth our family moved up to the Sacramento area where Dad and a partner had opened a Chiropractic office in Auburn, CA. We lived in Fair Oaks…about a 30 minute drive to the office. After 2 years the commute became too much for Dad and so we moved to a small town called Meadow Vista. Alas the partnership wasn’t working out too well and then, that winter it snowed in Meadow Vista, CALIFORNIA. So 7 months after we moved in we moved out and went back to the Bay Area, to a small unknown town called Sunnyvale. 5 months later, Tammy was born and our family was complete.
While we were up north Dad had been asked to be an expert witness in some personal injury lawsuits. Dad realized that these injured people were being under-represented due to their attorney’s lack of medical knowledge so he started attending McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento with plans to become an Attorney.. He hadn’t finished school when he decided to go back to the Bay Area so he needed to find a way to support his family in the meantime. He went to visit the Chiropractor that he had sold his practice to. The Dr. reminded him that part of the sales contract was a no compete clause which prohibited Dad from practicing in the area. As Dad left the office he walked down the street and walked by a State Farm Insurance Office. He glanced in the office and saw a former Stake Missionary companion sitting at the front desk. This man was an engineer…why was he in an insurance agency? Dad went in to talk to Brother Folsom and learned that he was in training to be an Insurance Agent. Well Dad had been encouraged by a Career Counselor at the Law School to look for a job in sales…Real Estate, Insurance, etc….where he could build up a network of people as a foundation for his new career in law. So Brother Folsom introduced Dad to his manager and Dad was hired. That was a very good move for Dad and he was very successful. He continued to attend law school and build his insurance agency at the same time. In 1967 he graduated from Lincoln University in San Francisco. A year later he passed the bar on his second attempt and joined the Law Firm of Kubby, Pritchard and Cohen as a personal injury attorney. Dad loved the practice of law…he once told me it was his favorite occupation.
In 1976 Ed and Shirley became Grandparents when the first of their 24 grandchildren was born. Later that year State Farm approached Dad and offered him an Executive Leadership Position with the company. Dad wasn’t really interested in leaving law but “no fault” insurance had just been implemented in California and Dad was concerned about what that would mean to his specialty of Personal Injury. So Ed accepted the position with State Farm Insurance. Soon afterwards State Farm held a seminar in the Clear Lake area. One of the activities was a golf tournament. Dad didn’t play golf so instead he found a local realtor and asked him to show him some investment properties in the area. That was when he found Lakeport Lagoons, a Mobile Home Park or a Manufactured Home Community as they are now referred to in the industry. Lakeport Lagoons became the first purchase in a line of successful investments in Manufactured Home Communities which has become our family business. Dad loved Lakeport and so, in 1978, after 14 years in the same house on Cathedral Dr. in Sunnyvale the family moved to Lakeport on Clear Lake and Dad oversaw a group of State Farm Agents in the Napa Valley. They lived there for 3 years before Dad accepted the management of a group of agents in the Monterey Area and he, Shirley and Tammy moved to Pebble Beach.
One morning in the summer of 1987 Dad woke up with double vision. Visits to Doctors revealed what they thought could possibly be a tumor and they scheduled surgery to remove it if possible. It was discovered that it was NOT a tumor and the surgery didn’t correct the situation which eventually went away on its own but the surgery did lead to years of seizures. The seizures meant that Dad couldn’t drive and so he retired from State Farm. By this time Ed and Shirley had an empty nest and were living in Carmel Valley. In 1989 they received a call from Herb and Dorothy Wilkinson who had lived down the street from us in Sunnyvale. They had been in our ward and their children had been our friends and they had stayed in touch over the years. The Wilkinsons told my parents that they were thinking of moving to Southern California to retire and why didn’t Mom and Dad come join them and see if it would interest them too. When Dad drove into Ocean Hills Country Club and saw a sign recruiting members for a Swing band he knew he had found his new home. All those years after enlisting in the Coast Guard to be in the band he was finally able to dust off his trumpet (which we rarely heard him play as we were growing up) and join not only the Swing Band but also the Dixieland Jazz Band. The fact that they had Bocce Ball courts, a game from his youth in the Italian neighborhoods of New York, was the whipped cream on the cannoli!
Mom and Dad settled into their new home. Dad loved the climate of Oceanside, about one hour north of San Diego. He told us it was always 70 degrees there. Their home was on the golf course and Dad quickly became a golf addict. We chuckled at the irony that he never played golf when he lived in Pebble Beach, home to some of the most spectacular golf courses in the World.
In 1996 Mom and Dad were called to serve in the Rochester, NY mission in upper state New York. This would allow Mom to be close to her mother who was living in a Nursing Home close-by. My Mom’s brother commented that there must be something special about this church if Ed was willing to come back to New York for the winter. But the Lord was watching over Dad and that winter was one of the mildest winters they ever had.
In August of 1999 Ed and Shirley became Great Grandparents when their first of 30 great grandchildren was born.
In 2004 Ed and Shirley celebrated their 50th anniversary on a Caribbean Cruise with their 5 children and our spouses. That was such a fun week…I’m so glad we have that memory of being together that week. We are a close family and we have enjoyed annual reunions established by Dad back in 1984. Family was the most important thing to Dad…La Familia as he called it. I am still impressed by his devotion to his mother over the years. It was always important to him that we remembered we were the Borgia family and as a result we developed a strong loyalty to each other.
In Sept of 2009 Dad had abdominal pain which led to surgery for an intestinal resection. It was a hard recovery requiring a second surgery when complications set in. So when he needed another surgery on Thanksgiving this year we all held our breaths. We were comforted a little when we learned that this time the pain was caused by his gall bladder which would need removing. I knew people who had had this surgery lapriscopically and been back at work the next week. But it was discovered that Dad’s gall bladder was actually gangrene and had started to poison his body. They removed what they could and started antibiotics to fight the infection that resulted. Once again a second surgery would be needed in an attempt to stop the infection which was killing him. We were hopeful but then the infection took hold again and on Dec 12th we were told that we weren’t going to win this battle. Dad drifted away from us by 3:13 that afternoon.
We are comforted by the knowledge that the family of his childhood, all of which preceded him from this earth is together again. He also has a granddaughter, Chelsi Ricksecker and a Great Grandson, Cameron Kitchen with him waiting for the rest of us to finish our turns on earth. His spirit and body may have gone from us but he is still with us. He is here in memories of Saturday mornings with Sourdough Pancakes. He will be here with our annual family reunions which will continue as he would want. He is remembered in the Italian Foods he loves so much: Homemade Ravioli’s, Pizza, Zippolis and Spheenchies (all of which Grandma had ready for him when he arrived I’m sure). He is remembered for Golf Weekends and Educational Trusts and Manufactured Home Communities…all the things that left his fingerprints all over our lives. All of you have memories of our Father, our Grandfather, our Uncle, your friend. Those memories will keep him alive and will comfort us with the sweet peace the Gospel brings.
We love you Dad. We will be sure Mom is taken care of just as we watched you care for your mother when your Father passed away. You’ve taught us well and most important you gave us the gospel which gives us the knowledge that we will be together again as a family.