Our Family
Tony and Rachel have been together for 7 years and have been married for 5 of those years.
They met through a mutual friend’s party… or at least they thought it was a party.
Their friends told Tony and Rachel about a house party and so they dressed for the occasion, but once they got there they found a woman with a table of products.
Turns out their mutual friend joined a multi level marketing pyramid scheme and the party was actually a sales party! Rachel, in an attempt to appease the sales woman, gave the saleswoman her Facebook information. Tony remembered that information and reached out to Rachel and set up their first date. Their date? Watching the DC Animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood. Turns out they were both fans of DC Comics!
Since then, Tony has brought Rachel into the fandom of Marvel comics and, in November 2017, he brought her into his family as well.
The Piccirillo Family
Pasquale Piccirillo was born in Naples, Italy in 1930, and often talked about his tough younger years under the rule of Mussolini. If there’s anything those years left him with it was the desire for family and financial freedom. He didn’t want him or his family to have to struggle and work forever.
As he entered adulthood and the workforce, he became a mechanic, working the metal shaping lathe machine, for Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed expressed that they needed people in their Brazil location to help build Brazil up
and Pasquale volunteered, immigrating to Brazil. While there he met his future wife, Dirce, at a school in Rio de Janeiro and had a family.
Things weren’t so good for his brother, Tonino, as their cousin brought Tonino to America to find a job since the job market in Italy wasn’t very good at the time.
Tonino was living alone in America, so Pasquale decided
to go to America and join and support his brother.
Once there, Pasquale picked up work as an Ironworker, creating the beams for many of the buildings in New York.
He even helped restore the Central Park bridge, which he was very proud of.
Pasquale liked America
and, after finding a place and filing the proper paperwork, brought his family over from Brazil as US citizens.
In America, he now had his family but he still had the desire to be financially free also. That way he could retire early and enjoy his time with his family.
Through hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, and the help of
his wife taking on cleaning jobs during the day, they managed to buy an apartment building together. His plan was to rent out the building and build enough cash flow that he could retire from work.
The whole family came together to fix and restore the building so they could get it ready for tenants.
With the building complete, and tenants renting the apartments they fixed up, Pasquale got his dream of financial freedom and retired early at the age of 59, enjoying the rest of his life with his family.
Pasquale had three sons, Angelo, Alfredo, and Antonio Piccirillo.
Alfredo Piccirillo followed a similar path to his father, joining Pan Am as an aircraft mechanic, and finding love in Brazil. He would take frequent trips to Brazil to meet his future wife, Jorgete, and would eventually marry her in America.
Alfredo and Jorgete Piccirillo, would then give birth to Tony and Alex Piccirillo in Queens, NY, living in the same building he built up with his father until he was ready to move into his own house on Long Island.
And just as Tony brought Rachel into his family, Rachel also brought Tony into her family.
A piece of Argyle always stayed with Janet as she bounced around to many different towns with her family, following her husband’s various jobs in Human Resources.
Janet and her husband married and had children at a
young age, and at some point Janet and her husband realized that they weren’t the same people that married so young years ago.
With that realization came a divorce. Janet missed her home town and moved back to Agryle,
where her family has always been and where she continues to stay.
For Janet, while visiting different towns and cities were nice for a time, her heart will always belong to her hometown of Argyle.
Janet’s children chose to stay behind in the latest city their father had brought them, New Jersey, which is where Rachel’s mother, Kimberly, met Rachel’s father, Bryan.
Kimberly and Bryan met and fell in
love while working at a grocery store in New Jersey. They soon married and moved upstate to Rome, NY where Rachel and her brother Dan were born.
Unfortunately, Kimberly found herself in the footsteps of her mother
and took Dan and Rachel with her to Argyle, NY, leaving Bryan behind and divorcing him.
For a while, Rachel and Dan got weekly visits with their father, Bryan, as a lengthy court battle for their custody ensued.
Frances Epstein, Bryan’s mother and Rachel’s Grandmother, had four children with her ex-husband before meeting her future husband Daniel Epstein, himself a divorcee with children of his own.
In their grief of divorce they found each other through a mutual friend and fell in love.
Daniel and Frances wanted to join their families together, Brady Bunch style, but Daniel’s ex-wife didn’t allow it. Despite Daniel’s ex-wife, Daniel still managed to take in Frances’ four children as his own.
Even to this day, if you were to ask Frances’ surviving children, MaryAnn, Hugh, or Catherine about their father, they would refer to Daniel Epstein. Frances and Daniel eventually has two kids of their own, Bryan
and George.
Unfortunately Daniel passed away from a heart attack when Bryan was only 10 years old, leaving Frances to raise 6 kids on her own while working two jobs. Frances worked as a Bookkeeper for hospitals and individuals.
The court battle for Rachel and Dan’s custody between Bryan and Kimberly eventually ended with Bryan gaining custody. Because Bryan wasn’t expecting to receive them so soon, Bryan asked his mother to watch them
until he could get a bigger apartment that could house his family.
Frances essentially took the role of mother figure for Rachel and Dan as she raised them as her own, putting the needs of her grandchildren over her own. Rachel and Dan stayed with their grandmother in the same household
as their cousins, Katie, Emily, Elizabeth, Charles Robert, and David. Because Rachel and Dan grew up with their cousins, they considered their cousins as their siblings.
Eventually Bryan was able to get a job at Invisalign as a salesperson, and managed to get a bigger apartment in Longbeach, NY. He was finally ready to have his children come home to him.
Dan, eventually ended up moving back in with his mom, Kimberly, but Rachel stayed with her father in the Long Beach apartment or another 5 years until Bryan met his future wife, Lisa, through a dating site. Bryan
and Lisa bought a new house in Wantagh together, adding a new member to Rachel’s immediate family.
Lisa treated Rachel as her own daughter, with Lisa calling Rachel her “pre-made baby”. Under the care of Bryan and Lisa, Rachel finished high school and then beauty school while living in Wantagh. It was in beauty
school that Rachel met the mutual friend that introduced her to Tony.
Tony and Rachel’s Family
Tony and Rachel often visit Tony’s brother and parents on the weekend while they visit Rachel’s cousins every few months for a “cousin’s day”.
Tony and Rachel also spend holidays like Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, and Easter with their extended families.
Currently, Tony and Rachel have a German Shepherd mix, named Axel, as their
fur baby.
When Tony and Rachel decided it was finally time to share the experience of growing their family with a child of their own they found they had fertility issues that stole that future away from them.
But they didn’t give up hope. Tony and Rachel then decided to try to adopt a child, giving them a caring home, and raising them as the child as their own.
Are you the birthmother that Tony and Rachel will bless with a loving home? Please Click Here to contact their lawyer Steve Sarisohn
to see if there is a match.
Adventure & Travel
Adventure and Travel are important aspects of Tony and Rachel’s lives.
Tony’s family would often bring him to see family in Italy and Brazil. Tony loved the whole process of going to the airport, getting on a plan, watching movies on the flight, and landing at his destination with a whole new set
of adventures.
Traveling was always something to look forward to before he went and something to fondly look back upon the days after he returned.
It also provided an escape from any troubles and stress he may have had from school or work back home. Traveling meant a new place, with new people, and new experiences such as visiting the Roman Coliseum, taking a cable car up
Sugar Loaf Mountain, hiking up the Red Rocks of Colorado, or visiting the Turkey Hill ice cream factory.
For Rachel, traveling meant an opportunity to explore the history and culture of the new city or town she was visiting. When Rachel travels, she always looks for the tours and museums, such as the Salem Witch trial museum, the New Orleans alligator swamp tour, or the Cliff Dwelling Pueblo museum. These tours and museums allow her to take a peak into the past of how the city or town was formed and who used to live there.
Because travel and adventure or so important to them, Tony and Rachel often try to plan weekend trips three quarters of each year with one big week long trip a year in the fourth quarter.
COVID put a stop to their out of country adventures, but they are determined to explore more countries such as Greece, Italy, Ireland, and Japan in the future.
Rachel’s Hobbies
As a young girl, Rachel would sit in the Argyle church in Sunday school where her mom would teach the children arts and crafts. Rachel noticed how happy her mom was showing the children how to paint, draw, and create.
Rachel also had an older cousin, Taryn, who wanted to be an artist like their uncle, Vic. Rachel looked up to Taryn and always wanted to do what her cousin was doing so that helped push Rachel into art. .
As Rachel’s grandmother watched Rachel’s newfound love of drawing, she took Rachel to a children’s drawing competition where the children were told to draw their heroes. Rachel drew Snoopy, her Pitbull Boxer, as her hero.
Her dog had recently been given away by her mom and Rachel missed Snoopy dearly. Drawing Snoopy, her hero, was Rachel’s way of connecting with her dog again.
Drawing, for Rachel, was a way to relax and shut off the thoughts in her brain. Drawing was, and still is, like a mindfulness meditation for her. When drawing, she can turn off the negative thoughts of loss, stress, or anxiety
and put her mind at ease.
Gardening, Rachel’s second passion, developed when she was a child, helping her mom plant and take care of trees in their backyard. Her mom would teach Rachel different tricks and tools for helping the plants grow and gardening always
brings her back to the time when she and her mom would bond over the rose bushes or sunflowers.
Rachel also sees gardening as a way of helping plants grow to their potential. All plants start as seeds that need some tender love and care before they can blossom into beautiful flowers, fruits, or vegetables.
In these books, she could be someone else. She loves escaping to the past in her books because she believes its interesting that even in the past you can find new experiences.
When not drawing or gardening, Rachel is often reading. Her love for books arrived in middle school. Since she was moved around a lot between custody battles, Rachel found it hard to keep friends which is why Rachel’s
friends became her books.
In these books, she could be someone else. She loves escaping to the past in her books because she believes its interesting that even in the past you can find new experiences.
Tony's Hobbies
When Tony was a child he would often ask his parents questions about why the sky was blue, why the grass was green, how could the clouds cause rain, and how could wind be invisible, up until Tony would fall asleep.
Tony was always curious about how and why things worked. That is why he grew into loving the art of science. When he was a child, his favorite shows were the Magic Schoolbus, WishBone, and Bill Nye the Science Guy because
they taught him science through stories.
Stories was, and still is, Tony’s second passion. Tony would be engrossed into the worlds of Batman, Spider-Man, and the X-Men through their animated adventures, and eventually Tony would try to create stories of his own.
Tony would create films with his brother and parents, dressed up in makeshift costumes, based on video games like Sparkster or Bomberman.
To Tony, the magic of stories was that you can be whoever you wanted to be in a story. You could create the world you wanted to live in and you could solve any problem you faced. Stories give you a control not normally seen in day
to day life.
Even to this day, Tony loves creating stories. He has written three comics so far and is currently working on his fourth.
He is also working on combining his love for science, specifically the science of behavior and reality, with his love for stories by creating a side business to use comics to help others create their own stories and grow in their personal development.
