Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

90 Must Be The New 70

This is the body copy

Many congratulations to Fishtown's Joe Varsanyi, Sr., who turned 90 yesterday and celebrated, the day before, with a gallery-like showing of his beautiful paintings. The oils and watercolors were displayed in the sanctuary of Atonement Lutheran Church at 1400 Montomgery Ave., where his devoted son, Rev. Joe Varsanyi, Jr. is the acting pastor.

"He's my hero," says Joe Jr. of his dad.

"He's my angel," responds Joe Sr.

Joe Jr. thought the gallery show would be a fitting birthday tribute to his dad, an amateur artist whose work is a lovely collection of landscapes, seascapes, "smallscapes" and portraits, many of them oil renditions of photographs whose subjects, color or composition so caught his fancy he felt compelled to reproduce them on canvas. Joe Sr. has been painting for years, a hobby much encouraged by his late wife, Irene, who passed away 15 months ago.

Irene's death - after an extended illness that seemed to deepen, not discourage, her faith in the Lord - was a tremendous blow to her two Joes. She'd been not just the center of their world but a much loved resident on the Fishtown block where she and Joe Sr. had moved a decade ago to be closer to Joe Jr., who owns a home there.

Father and son still feel her loving and light-hearted spirit - it's almost an everyday presence, actually. As Joe Jr. said to his dad, during the luncheon he hosted in the church basement after the "gallery" show:  "You'll live each day with Mom never far from you, and turn as you so often do, to the Lord who has been your shepherd and guide these 90 years."

Happy birthday, Joe, Sr. With God and Irene in your corner, may you enjoy many birthdays, and painting sessions, for years to come.