I shared lunch yesterday with one of THE most amazing men I have ever had the privilege of meeting. He was charming, witty, sharp as a tack, unstoppable in conversation, filled with the best stories and undeniably adorable. I found myself mesmerized for the entire hour or so and then sad at his departure.

Yep, my perfect man.

85 years old and very happily married!!!

Lou D’Amico left an impression etched in my soul yesterday.  Through his big thick glasses were the eyes of a man who “gets it.” Get’s life … gets what we’re all here for.  He sees the works of God. He listens to God and believes if he were to die this day, he has fulfilled his mission.  To quote a popular movie phrase “he had me at hello.” And then some.

He had come as a guest to lunch with my good friend, chef Rick, and others at the corporate headquarters of Invision in Seekonk, Mass. Over lobster salad and garlic bread, I held tight to his every word. I listened more intently to him than anyone else in a very long time. I soaked in his life lessons like a dry sponge tossed into a puddle. Because it isn’t often in this harried and fast past life that we truly make time to take some time and LISTEN. I stopped my world for him.

His father died when he was a baby in the 30’s, leaving his mother to raise him and his sister alone. She was a tough, but loving mom who raised an amazing son - one who took work as soon as he could so he was able to pay her bills and support the family until she passed away.  He came from NOTHING, financially, and everything spiritually and emotionally. They had very little and yet his mom refused to accept welfare.  Lou did whatever he could to bring in money and one day, while working in a restaurant, a simple cook he had gotten to know told Lou that he needed to do whatever he could to get out of that town and make something of his life. He knew Lou had a love for writing and one day, Lou came into work to discover that the cook, Nick, had somehow managed to buy him a typewriter. Lou could not understand HOW he afforded it or WHY he would do that, but that typewriter got Lou his start in a business world and he never looked back.

I asked him if Nick ever knew what a difference he had made in Lou’s life by giving him the typewriter and he said “NO.” He never saw him again. And then I asked him “so what did you do pay it forward, Lou, to pass on all of the blessings from Nick to another person.”

To which he replied : “I started a scholarship program at Johnson and Wales so future chefs could get their training and dreams.” Something Chef Nick, the one who bought him the typewriter, was never able to do. Today,  numerous chefs in the industry have Lou to thank for their beginnings.

The man is without a doubt a great success. At 85, he has conquered the business world, calls hundreds of famous people his close friends and has had a life of plenty and yet, when I asked him to tell me what his greatest accomplishment will be in this life as he reflects on 85 years, his answer was simple.

“My wife. We have been married over 60 years and she is the most wonderful woman I have ever met and I love her more today than ever.”

Wow.