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68 68 | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | MAY 2023 | | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | MAY 2023 | Friends we will miss Submit your Friends We Will Miss to sunlakesnews@yahoo.com. Please keep remembrances to 400 words and include one recent, high-resolution photo. Mary Lee McGovern, a Sun Lakes resident for more than 25 years, passed away January 24, 2023. She had a long, loved life, family and many friends. Born in 1934 in New Jersey, Mary Lee graduated from nursing school in 1954 and worked in the medical profession for more than 40 years. She thrived on interacting with and helping people her whole life. Her love was her family: husband Richard McGovern, who passed away in 2020, her four sons and daughter Nancy who had Downs Syndrome, her four grandchildren and her three- year-old great-granddaughter. Mary Lee had many friends at Sun Lakes where she was a member of many groups such as aqua zumba, bocce, tap dancing, pennies card group, Tuesday afternoon knitting, and Ladies Executive Golf. She will be greatly missed. Nick Polcino 11/24/1939 - 11/22/2022 Preface: Nick Polcino was a member of the Sun Lakes writers group since 2003. They bring a one- page musing to read to the group in their bi-monthly meetings. This is one he wrote some time ago, but how beautiful that we can read his obituary in his own words! Nick is survived by his loving & grateful wife Janet, daughter Sharon, sons Michael, Dominic, David and granddaughters Alexis and Ellie. MY OBITUARY By Nick Polcino Obituaries are about as boring as reading labels on bread. They present nothing about your life other than a list. Where you went to school, the places you worked, the names of your surviving spouse and children. Most readers only want to know if they knew you or how old you were when you died. The age thing is so they can compare to see if the person in the obit died younger than them or set an impossible goal for you to try. That is not what my life was about. As a kid I discovered old wooden railroad tracks that belonged to the first railroad. We played cowboys on real ponies. Found Revolutionary War cannon ball holes in old barns where I played. I stayed a summer in Atlantic City and saw Gorgeous George, the wrestler, walking near me on the boardwalk. I saw the diving horses at the end of Steel Pier and there watched The Mills Brothers and most of the big bands. I ate real Philly cheese steaks and hoagies weekly and put my finger in the crack of the Liberty Bell. In my lifetime I was there at the beginning of Rock and Roll. Bill Haley and the Comets played in my high school gym. I danced to the beat in a TV show similar to Bandstand. I saw Chuck Berry perform when I was in High School and saw him again recently before he died. I worked the night shift in a major newspaper and caught the buzz rushing through the building when the Russians sent the first satellite into space. By nineteen, I had two secretaries and worked with major ad agencies. I took my kids to watch the first space shuttle landing. I've seen my kids names on television and in magazines based on their talents. I've met film, television and music stars, created a toy store worth a picture and coverage in Sunset Magazine. Hung out with major CEOs and even a few mercenaries. Fired a Thompson submachine gun and drove the Budweiser Clydesdale wagon. I've been to Mount Rushmore and stood under the presidents; ridden in cars, planes, ferries, speed boats, hot air balloons, cruise ships and a Conestoga wagon in the Black Hills. Saw two flying saucers and one ghost. This is just a sampling of what made my life interesting. Oh, and I met Elvis. This, incidentally, is not bragging. Remember, I'm dead.