This previous Sunday I used to be met with the best shock whereas establishing my desk for the Bus Tour at Keste. I noticed somebody standing close to the doorway and after I turned the nook to greet them I used to be met with a face I hadn’t seen in YEARS! There stood Mary Magee, who has been on a number of excursions together with a personal bus tour for her sixty fifth birthday. She was launched to the tour by her husband, Don Magee.
The primary time Don Magee took a pizza tour again in April 2010, he instructed me he was a “meals tour connoisseur,” which scared the heck out of me. I used to be nonetheless a inexperienced tour information and suffered from large imposter syndrome. As I later found, Don used strolling excursions as a way of rehabilitation after leg surgical procedure. Each tour firm knew him and we may all depend on him to publish in regards to the tour on his weblog.
Don turned a staple on pizza excursions, taking a minimum of 15 of them over 5 years. He confirmed up after I ran a one-time-only Vegan Pizza Tour in June 2012. Our Decrease East Facet tour solely lasted a pair years however Dom managed to take it a minimum of twice! He even tried our short-lived Midtown tour in April 2014. Don wasn’t effusive or bubbly, serving the type of straight face us tour guides usually have hassle studying. He beloved meals and he beloved studying. Having him on a tour was all the time a great signal.
Don was a critical meals man, having acquired a culinary diploma from The French Culinary Institute in NYC. Don saved observe of all the things he ate on his aforementioned weblog and in addition wrote articles and newsletters about meals for his native paper, the Two River Occasions. After he died, I discovered that he was energetic with a corporation referred to as 180, Turning Lives Round, which offers with home violence. This man was a power.
Don Magee handed away in October 2015 however I’ve stayed in contact with Mary ever since. Once I noticed Mary this weekend, it didn’t really feel prefer it had been 8 years since we final met. She had introduced together with her a e-book she compiled of Don’s writing. It’s an absolute treasure, as is Don’s reminiscence.