“Millions of people will get to enjoy the work Michael did,” said his boss & Co-worker,” Donald (Donny) Shauger.
“A light loses nothing by being extinguished, it just goes back to how it was before."
-Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Seneca, the great Roman Stoic philosopher reminded himself that prior to being born we were still and at peace, and so we will be once again after we die. Rest in peace, dear brother. This day, November 10 will always be your birthday. No one can ever take it away from you or from those who love you.
My fondest childhood memory is when we were visiting relatives in Sicily where our mother was born. Zio (uncle) Lillo taught me how to drive his Vespa. I was 13, our sister Josephine, 8 and you were 5. As we rode along the upper road overlooking the ocean, I came to the top of a small sandy hill, lost my balance and we went down. No one got hurt and we all laughed it off and got back on.
Cecile and I got married in 1977. Her mom and dad threw an intimate wedding reception in Chicago. Mom and dad came from NJ and they brought you and mom said: “I’m sending Michael back with you to California.” You attended West Valley College in Saratoga, lived with us for two years, and later took a job installing Pella windows, then moved to San Diego, got married to Carla, and had four wonderful boys, Mikey, Andrew, Brock, and Alex who adore you.
Since you were a young kid, you were drawn to carpentry and construction and in 2003 took a job with The Shauger Group, Inc. (TSG) in East Orange, NJ. Due to your enthusiastic and dedicated presence in the field you became known as an important part of the TSG team and In time you served as a Carpenter Foreman and Supervisor.
Fast forward, and I invited you to join me and our brother in law Joe to take a trip of a lifetime to Kenya and Tanzania. I will always treasure our time together.
Your extraordinary son, Michael, Jr., gave a heartfelt memorial tribute to you at St. Francis Church in Hoboken, NJ. You would have been so proud of him. Here is a brief excerpt from that tribute.
"…I ask everyone out there who knew him to “pay it forward” with the same unconditional love, desire to help
others and overall selflessness that made him shine so bright.” In the spirit of "paying it forward," your aunt Cecile and I have donated $500 to your favorite charity (and ours), Saint Jude’s Children’s Research in loving memory.
To Family & Friends: After I delivered the Eulogy to a packed room at Failla’s Funeral Home in honor of my brother Michael, something extraordinary happened, a busload of 36 co-workers who were stuck in traffic arrived to pay their respects including his boss Donald (Donny) and his wife, Lisa We greeted them one by one as they paid their condolences.
We celebrated my brother Michael’s life with a repast luncheon at Trattoria Il Cafone in Lynhurst, NJ. Before the food was served, Donny said, “We pay our last respects to Michael Augustine, not only my Coworker for over 15 years, he was also part of our family. Millions of people will get to enjoy the work Michael did. The South Mountain Recreational Complex (Turtle Back Zoo) was built and overseen by Michael. His dedication to his family, Coworkers, friends, and others was priceless. He was involved with every community project or charity event the company was involved in, including extreme makeovers of the Apostles House in Newark, a homeless shelter for women with children in 2008 and 2018. In 2012 he assisted in replacing a roof that was ripped off a senior citizen rehab center by Hurricane Sandy. He also loved doing the snowplowing at Morris Country College and said we were blessed to have Michael in our lives. The victorious pose Michael displays in the photo is when he finished installing the bridge at the walking path around Orange Reservoir, an example of the pride Michael put into all his projects.
To our surprise, our family discovered that Donny quietly took care of the bill for the luncheon for over 60 people before he said his goodbyes. Donny loved Michael like a brother and sat vigil with Michael late into the night when he was in the hospital and for that compassionate act, our family will always be grateful. Thanks, Donny. You're the best.
Finally, to my dear cousin Reena (Selfie Queen) and Penny Lane for making me and Cecile smile and my cousin Joey Micalizzi, a United Airlines Baggage Handler at Newark Airport, for meeting us at the gate the day after the funeral to see us off for our return to California. It helped ease the pain of our loss. As Reena reminded me, television's children host, Mr. Rogers said his mother responded to scary news by telling him, 'Look for the helper's.' I agree there are friends, family members, even strangers who were there to ease the burden for our family, and as the Swedish proverb says, a burden shared is cut in half.
