Dr. Juan Manuel DeLecuona

Dr. John

I have just returned from Augusta, Georgia, the memorial service for my son-in-law, Juan DeLecuona, my daughter Becky's husband. John was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1961. He and his mother came to the Uited States when he was six years old and settled in Staten Island. John was board certified in both psychiatry and neurology and touched many lives through his work and his life.

John and Becky met when he was a resident at Albert Einshein in the psychiatric emergency room of the North Central Bronx Hospital and she was a social work intern there. They married in June, 1989. The have two children, Lillian Isabel, born February 8, 2000, and Russell Manuel, born February 16, 2004.

Lillie wrote a tribute to her dad which was printed in the service bulletin. She gave me permission to quote some of it here.

"My dad and I had a special relationship. We told each other secrets and our worries. He taught me to see the beauty in everything. He gave me my passions of the arts and especially photography. He didn't smile much but when he talked about me his eyes sparkled and told what he really felt.  It is a relationship that I will never have with anyone else and will never be broken by anything, even death.
Death is a horrible thing. Life is something very precious and shouldn't be taken for granted, even when things look bleak. But he still lives on in our memories and is watching over us, right now, up in heaven playing the banjo."

It was good to celebrate the life of this dedicated man.