Paul Lester Chiriaco

Mr. Paul Lester Chiriaco, 93, of Frederick died Sunday, February 11, 2018 at Homewood at Crumland Farms. He was the husband of Shirley (Hunt) Chiriaco for 69 years.

Born April 25, 1924 in Florence, AL, he was the son of the late Vincenzo and Pauline Petranella (Fago) Chiriaco.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Cathy (Jerry), Donna, Vincent (Lisa), Pauline (Chuck),  and Anthony (Ann); grandchildren, Daniel (Sarah), Laura, Allison, Kimberly, and Michael, and great-granddaughter, Madeline.

A funeral service will be held at 1:00 PM, on Friday, February 16, 2018, at Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, 8428 Opossumtown Pike, Frederick, MD, 21702. Father Keith Boisvert will officiate. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the National Federation of the Blind, 200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place, Baltimore, MD 21230 .

Remembrances from his Children...

Paul, Dad, Daddy taught us to see beauty in the smallest things, to treat everyone with courtesy, not to worry about the things we couldn't change, and not to draw to an inside straight.  He taught us not to talk back to our mother.  He didn't have to teach us not to talk back to him -- we rarely had the nerve.

As a child of the depression, he hated waste.  He taught us how to conserve money and paper towels, and how to make batteries last longer.  He was annoyed that things didn't cost what they did 30 years ago.

When his eyesight failed, he had to give up reading and coin collecting.  But he loved playing cards, and he never gave that up.  When we played, we had to call out the cards to him, and he'd remember them.  The rest of us had our sight, yet he still took our money.

He loved chocolate and owls and ghost stories.  He loved babies, children, and grandchildren -- his own and everyone else's.  Our friends always wanted to be at our house and usually were.  He hid treasures for us in little plastic Easter eggs -- and not just at Easter time.  He was very anxious to meet new baby Maddie, the family's first great-grandchild, but he never did.

This year he would have celebrated 70 years of marriage to our mother.  He was 93, and he is still gone too soon.