Stories about Tony
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Our Tony
​From: His Brothers and Sisters
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Family came first, second and third.
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He had a big and generous heart.
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He had more hair than all his four brothers combined, with every hair in its place.
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He made his Mum and Dad laugh regularly until they were red in the face.
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From an early age, he would pull a funny face whenever the camera was on him.
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His ability to mimic songs, quote movie lines and impersonate singers is legendary.
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He would hilariously get himself into uncomfortable situations and miraculously get out of them.
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His prank calls ranged from angry Chinese restaurant owners to his parents’ friends with strong Spanish accents.
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He was everyone’s BFF and if he wasn’t, he would be soon.
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His greatest gift is that he loved all of us dearly.
Reflection on Tony's Farewell Day 2013
From: Brett Murphy
So the funeral for Tony was big today ... over 400 people. Tony was the brother of an ex-IBMer who I worked for, Iggy Pintado. Many things struck me about the day - the faith, the ceremony (I had not been to a Catholic funeral before), the amazing eulogy that the wife gave. On the back of the Order of Service was this story that was found in Tony's briefcase. I like it.
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IN CLAY VESSELS
A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay vessels. It was like someone had rolled balls of clay and left them out in the sun to bake.
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They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.
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He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!
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Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay vessels. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. Then it struck him.
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He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
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It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.
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We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.
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There is a treasure in each one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
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May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay.
~Author Unknown
Brotherly Band of Love
From: His brother, Iggy Pintado
When my brother, Tony passed away in March 2013, I promised myself that I would visit his grave regularly. During an early visit, I took a rubber band from some flowers as a way of remembering him and put it on my wrist until I could find a proper wrist band. Last week, I was given a beautiful wristband so ...I took the rubber band off and dropped it on the table.
Without a word of a lie, it landed like this.
Message received, brother.
