Mr. Joseph Joe A. Mazza Jr.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, April 3, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. with the service to begin 12:00 noon, at Palms-Robarts Funeral Home, 170 Honore Ave. Sarasota, FL 34232. Entombment to follow in Palms-Robarts Memorial Park.

Survivors include daughters, Mary Mazza-Andersen, Gabrielle Bryant, Cynthia Girard, Stacey Mazza-Gilkison, Brother, James Mazza, Sister, Madeline Brommer. He is also survived by grandchildren, Kassandra, Chris, Mikey, Aidan, Princeton, Noelle, and Angeleah. He was preceded in death by his wife Madge, and a son David.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Tidewell Hospice Inc., 2504 34th Ave. W., Bradenton, FL 34205.

Eulogy written and given by Cynthia Girard:

I want to thank you all for coming today. It’s so good to see you, and I truly wish it was under different circumstances. As sick as Dad was, I know this took everyone by surprise. After all, he’d been preparing to go since his first heart attack - which was over 20 years ago. I think we all expected him to hang on for awhile yet.

Dad accomplished a lot in his 70 years of life. He was a successful and respected businessman, he was a loving husband, father, and grandfather. And although his little bounce would never win any awards, I always loved to watch him dance. Although it was quite a challenge to keep up with him.

He was extremely patriotic – so much so that he joined the Army before he was legally old enough to do so. His mom had to go and drag him back home, but he joined again as soon as he could. He was very proud of being a paratrooper and would joke that his legs were so short because on one of his jumps his parachute didn’t open on time.

Dad was a prankster. He would do things like wait until my sisters and I were in bed, then sneak outside and scratch his nails against our window. Or he’d put on this old matted wig, stick a pillow under the neck of his shirt and limp into the room with his face slack and be drooling out of his mouth. Most of the time we’d just scream and run to Mom, but he did this once when one of our cousins was staying with us and she ran out of the house, jumped the fence, and kept running.

I know Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Madeline could tell quite a few stories from their childhood, and some from after he should have known better. Aunt Shirley has been telling us of all the times he stole their cars in the middle of the night. That was Dad. Even the nurses at his doctor’s office would say “Here comes trouble” when they saw him come in.

He was always very playful, but wow – you never EVER wanted to make him mad. I’m very grateful that it didn’t happen often.

He was a very patient man. How else could he have lived in a house with five women for so long without going insane? But not only did he survive that trauma, he even managed to raise his granddaughter through her later teen years. I guess he loved a challenge.

Dad was always there for us. He was our handyman, our mechanic, and our advisor. He was our protector and our hero. I think we all remember times when he drove hours out of his way to bail us out of some mess we were in, whether it was keys locked in the car or a fake stomach ache. And even as adults, we always felt we had a home to go back to if we needed it.

He sure did love his girls. His wife, his daughters, his granddaugher, and finally his dog Meeka, who I think we all got a little jealous of for awhile.

I know you all have special memories of him, and I hope they’ll provide some comfort to you.

Dad was a great man. He was funny and smart and extremely loving. He could be a royal pain in the butt, but most of the time he did that on purpose. I’ll miss him terribly, as I’m sure you will, but I’m glad he’s got Mom to pester again, and Meeka at his side.