A Well-Deserved Honor

Somewhere, my mother and father are smiling.  

On Saturday, October 8, among the individuals being honored by The Wardlaw-Hartridge School at its annual Alumni Awards ceremony shall be Matthew P. Albano, Esq., Class of 1981.   It has been my great pleasure and privilege to know Matt since...well for so long that I cannot remember a time in my life that I have not known him.  

In addition to being Kara's classmate and a great friend to Kara, Jill, and me, Matt was one of my parents' favorites.  He ranked high on the list of Dad's all-time favorite students.  It was a not-very-well-kept secret in the Kenny household when I was a child that Matt was who my parents wanted me to be when I grew up.  

As luck would have it,  five-and-one-half decades into this life, I have never hit that mark.  Some footsteps were easier to follow than others, such as our shared career in the law at which I like to think I have held up my end as opposed to my ill-fated foray into wrestling.  

Unlike Matt, who was a standout at W-H, I would have had to been much better than I actually was to have qualified as "terrible".  In his four seasons wrestling for Doc Rud, he won too many matches to count and placed in the State Championships.  In my one season on the mats, I notched two wins and an encyclopedic knowledge of the composition of high school gymnasium ceilings throughout the State of Concrete Gardens.  

This Saturday, I shall be among those in attendance saluting Matt and his fellow honorees.  And somewhere, my mother and father shall no doubt be looking in on the afternoon's events and smiling...  

Matt Albano's masterpiece - made for Dad

...as shall I.  

-AK