The Rev. Lt. Col. Carmen Frank Riviello, Sr. (ret., U.S.A.N.C.), last stood about 5’3’’ on his size 8 ½ feet. The buffeting winds of age and care had eroded a full three inches from his height, but not an atom from his wit.
As a boy in the Lackawanna coal country of Pennsylvania, he walked the train tracks, collecting lumps of anthracite fallen from the cargo of passing trains which carried the black nuggets his father helped mine from the Paleozoic seams to the furnaces of the Steel Belt. Each lump was added to his sack until he returned home to add it to the coal supply for the family’s stove.
In the same way, he trod the path of life, collecting the memories that make up a lifetime until it came time to shrug off his burden at 15:00 25 May 2011, a week and half before the 80th celebration of his birth on 4 June 1931. And this is what is left: a deep and dense trove of memories, left for us all to mine and add to our own collections, to help keep us warm through the rest of our days. The last, freshly-hewn nugget of memory he collected was surely one of kisses and hugs, prayers and whispered worries, and of tender touches amidst the joyful noise of his family enjoying each others’ company even in that grim moment. The conversation and tempered laughter halted as his labored breath did.
Dig down deeper, and any shard of recollection on which your hand might fall reveals a man of intense curiosity about the world, of faith and scholarship, of devotion to his family, and of compassion to those in his care. Whether in his cooking, his preaching, or his nursing, the secret ingredient in all he did was love.
Carmen is survived by Nancy, his wife of 57 years; his three children, Carmen Jr., Pontia, and Corrine; as well as his grandchildren, Russell, Christine, Clare, Thomas, Sean, Rochelle, and Shana; his great-grandson, Gavin; son-in-law, Russell; daughters-in-law, Kathleen and Beverly.
A funeral service celebrating his life will be held on Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 10 a.m., Harrell Funeral Home, Kyle location. A graveside service with full military honors will be at 1:30 p.m. at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas with Pastor David Sweet officiating both.
The National Cemetery limits the number of floral arrangements to only one or two; therefore, in lieu of flowers please consider a contribution to the Hays Hills Baptist Church Youth Group, for which Carmen and Nancy provided seed funding, or to the Antioch Church Building fund. Donations for either may be sent in care of Hays Hills Baptist Church, 1401 N. FM 1626, Buda TX 78610, or call (512) 295-3132.
