Everyone should be so lucky as to have an Uncle Rich. And no, you can’t have mine. I already have to share him with my 35 Farrell first cousins, and however more nieces and nephews there are vying for his attention on the Lopresti side of his family.

I won’t call Uncle Rich my favorite uncle. I prefer to remain noncommittal in that regards, as there is no room for favoritism in a family like mine. (Not unless you care to be voided off everyone else’s Christmas list.) But I think that all of my cousins would agree that he’s got a special place in all of our hearts.

A bit of history on the Farrells and the Lopresti families before we go forward. My mother and her 12 Irish Catholic siblings grew up on 78th Street in Brooklyn, separated by nothing more than a driveway from the thoroughly Italian Lopresti household with its seven children. Over the years, the two families intertwined, with two of my mom’s sisters marrying brothers from next door.

Aunt Grace and Uncle Sal, who recently celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary, were the first to fall in love. Aunt Maureen and Uncle Rich followed suit a few years later. Want to hear something incredibly romantic? They chose Doris Day’s “Secret Love” as their wedding song since they had kept their budding feelings for one another to themselves for so long.