Chi-rish Goodbye
I remember the day we were in a brainstorming session at the old Peter Pan headquarters, working on the comeback of the legendary Fort/Student Prince. The Fort had been closed and was being saved by a team-up of the Yee family, the Vann family and Peter Picknelly. Great news for the region.
So Andy Yee, Peter Picknelly and my sons Joe and Gainer and I sat down to kick the can. Outta nowhere, Andy started the meeting by telling Peter, “Darby is my uncle.” What the Christ? Andy was married to my sister Betsy’s daughter Sarah, so I guess it was true. Then he blurted out, “Yeah, I married into the O’Brien family and now I’m Chi-rish!” The crazy bastard went and created a new nationality for himself. That’s the way it was with Andy.
I gotta say Andy had a way with the blarney as good as any Irishman and he could tell a great story. He had a lot of gusto in anything he ever did. It’s a terrible loss for everyone, especially his great kids Bella and Emma.
Not a lot of people know that Andy was a big fan of country music. I used to always call him Tex. Every call and every text, all the way to the end, started with “Hey Tex.”
You probably do this too, but out of respect, I never delete the cell phone numbers of friends and family gone by. Every time I scroll by their name, I do the Big Papi one-finger salute in the air and never forget. Sadly, Andy “Tex” Yee is now on that list.
Stay good to your friends and keep your dukes up.