I am going to try to get through this without breaking into my ugly cry because no one needs to see that. Joey was a joker and so I will do what he would want, which is share some of our funniest moments together.
From a very young age, Joey had the talent of making people laugh, even if he didn’t know it. When he was learning to talk, I was driving with him and his mom and he started freaking out in his car seat yelling Tim Hortons, Tim Hortons! I said to his mom, what is he saying? And she said, Tim Hortons. He only goes there with his Grandmother and so he only knows how to say it with a Portuguese accent. Then she said, watch this- Joey, what’s that in the sky? He looked up at the plane and said, Air Canada!
In addition to accents, Joey was great at picking up new words, which wasn’t always a good thing. When he was three, he and his cousin were together in the car being driven to a cottage in Sauble beach and when they arrived at their cottage, the boys were playing and their parents noticed the boys were chanting something over and over again. It took awhile to figure out what they were saying but eventually the adults figured out that the boys had learned some lyrics to a new song. Two words, actually... Birthday Sex, Birthday Sex. That took some re-programming and a new DJ on the ride home.
As Joey grew, his humor evolved. He figured out that being funny could get him out of trouble quickly. When he knew he was about to get in trouble, he would do something unexpected to make his mom laugh and hopefully deflect the attention from his punishment. My favorite was when he’d come into the room, look at his mom and yell, I’m Mr Fancy Pants! She couldn’t stop from smiling... and he knew he was off the hook.
He called me and his mom his “Girls” and one time, in a hot tub on our vacation to Disney, he came over, sat between us, put his arms around both of us, leaned back and said, “ahhhhh, this is the life.”. That was my Jo-Jo Bunny.
Speaking of Jo-Jo Bunny, that and Little Man were Joey’s two nicknames. Little Man because that’s what he looked like as a baby, a little man. Jo-Jo Bunny was the one that stuck and one day when I visited the house, Joey came to the door and I excitedly said, “Hi Jo-Jo Bunny!” And Joey gave me one of his famous hugs and said, “can you please stop calling me that? I’m just Joey.” And I said, disappointed, “Ok”. Joey could see I was sad that I couldn’t call him Jo Jo Bunny anymore and he quickly whispered to me, “except maybe just in the house.”. So I was allowed to call him Jo Jo Bunny, but only at home.
Joey didn’t like to see people sad or upset and would do anything to make you happy. I think most people know Joey had a love and incredible talent for video games. I used to sit and play Mario Kart with him and I’d lose, over and over again. So he started giving me a ten second head start. I still couldn’t win. Finally, frustrated with my dismal performance and out of sheer pity for me, Joey looked at me after winning yet again and said, “Okay Tia, this time I’ll play with my eyes closed.” I finally won a game.
My last memory with Joey was this past Christmas. I was babysitting Joey’s niece Christina and her and I went to visit Joey who was playing a new video game I hadn’t seen before. It was called Fortnite and he had a headset on while playing. His niece was so excited to see him, she started jumping all over him. Joey kept saying, Christina, stop, get down. And I could hear the other kids responding to him over the TV speakers... “Who’s Christina? Is that a new player? Where is she?” And Joey responding, “no, that’s my niece, Christina, get off” and the other players respond, “you’re an uncle?”. Joey finally looked at me and said, Tia, a little help please?” And the other players said, “who’s Tia?” Then poor Joey had to explain, “That’s my aunt guys” and the confused players now responded, “I thought you just said you were the uncle!”. Joey had it - he just looked at me and I promptly removed his niece from the room. When I got back, I became fascinated by this Fortnite game and I started asking him, “who is that guy?” “Why do you build those forts so high?” “How do you know which ones are on your team?” “Oh, make your guy dance again, that’s funny! Why does he do that?”. Joey answered every question then said to his playmates, “hang on guys. I’ll be right back.” Then he paused the game, took off his headset, looked at me and said, Tia, if you just let me play this game in peace, I promise I’ll put on Mario Cart after and let you win.
Joey, as most know, was on the Spectrum. That came with a lot of challenges, but, it also came with what I think made Joey so special. Joey only displayed emotions that he could recognize and truly felt. That is why I am so thankful to know that every time he hugged me and said I love you, he meant it.
Until we meet again, my Jo Jo Bunny, Tia loves you.