Tito E. Grenga

At 2:28 p.m. on October 15, 2024, Tito E. Grenga passed away in his sleep. Death, knowing he'd be bested by the swift, thick hands of the pre-war American stoic if awake, crept in during a nap and delivered a peaceful end to his long, lovely journey here on Earth. 

The 85-year-old taxi cab driver and Queens native had led a life of conservative adventure, working nights and weekends for most of his prolonged career to provide his small family, wife Maryann and children Jennifer and Silvio, with tastes of the lives of the often regal he, for decades, welcomed into the backseat of his cab from the townhomes of the Upper East Side. Education, travel, fur hats, fine china, fruit not of arbitrage but overtime. A simple man himself who aspired not to amass a thing, or spend more on his own existence than absolutely necessary, he lived and died a martyr, meaning a witness to something greater than himself, the comfort and future of his family. 

In the days before his death, Grenga enjoyed a multitude of meals with his family, a long awaited trip to a childhood retreat Upstate New York and a morning crabbing with his grandson. 

He leaves them, Rolando, Jennifer, Christian and AnaIsabella Zeron for now, but joins his wife and son, both of whom he's long waited to embrace once more, in the eternal afterlife.