A brother's eulogy: Domenico Schiano di Cola remembered as 'the most kind and selfless person'

Editor’s note: Hundreds of mourners gathered Monday at Most Blessed Sacrament Church to celebrate the life of Domenico “Domen” Schiano di Cola of Harrison. Schiano di Cola, 29, co-owner of the popular J&S Pizza, died Aug. 6 in Italy after experiencing sudden cardiac arrest. His brother Vincenzo and lifelong friend Joseph Marchi eulogized Domenico and shared with family and friends the many qualities that made the St. Joseph High School graduate unique. Below is a transcript of Vincenzo Schiano di Cola’s eulogy.

Good evening and thank you all for coming to this memorial service for my brother. My name is Vincenzo and today I have the honor of saying some words for Domenico. My purpose today isn’t to make anyone laugh or cry, but to simply remember my brother for who he was. For me, I will remember him as my best friend, my role model, my rock and now for the rest of my days, my inspiration. For you guys, you might remember him as the short little pizza man with too much hair, a bad sense of humor and bad breath. You know, that might be how I remember him but you get the point.

After his death, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect, and I am reminded of a couple key principles that could be said about Domenico. The first one is that he was our guardian angel. Since birth he’s been directing my family and leading them to where they should actually be on this giant Earth, and that place was Pittsburgh, Pa.

My brother was born in Naples with a heart defect in 1995. At the time, my dad had an extremely established career path after earning the rank “first officer,” as he had spent 10-15 years on the sea traveling all over the world. I say the words “extremely established,” mainly because my father always made a point to remind us of that fact. In the most random times he would remind us, most often when he was trying to parallel park a car and we would be doubting him, and his retort was always, “guys, I was an officer on a ship for 20 years, of course I can park this car.” We never really knew how that translated but, hey, whatever helped you park that car, Dad.

But anyways back to Domen. After his diagnosis and after the recommendation of our oldest and truest family friends, Dr. Pete Keim and his wife Pat Keim, my family uprooted everything to start their lives again, completely brand new in Pittsburgh. If it wasn’t for Domen and his delicate heart, our lives would’ve taken a completely different shape, and most likely we wouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting all of you amazing people that are in this church today. So for that, Domen, I thank you.

The second thing that I am consistently reminded of when I think of Domen was his ability to find the silver lining in everything, and it would be part of his personality to find one in this tragedy as well. One thing that was constant throughout the unfolding of this tragedy was the support of our friends and family. I was so happy seeing all of my family and friends that we had accumulated over the years come to the house and support me and my family. It made this tough time a little bit easier and for that I will be forever grateful.

When I reflect on the last 25 years of my life, 25 years in which Domen has been there quite literally every day, I recognize how lucky I am. I would say that we were all fortunate to be able to know Domen and appreciate him for all that he was, the most kind and selfless person with a heart too pure for this world. Sure, in the physical sense he will not be with us anymore, but I know that he will be a part of my life, through everything that I do. For every coffee I drink in the morning, for every bowl of cereal, for everytime I get angry at Napoli or the Steelers, I know that he will be right there with me, most likely laughing at me. Domen’s approach to life always concerned me, with his no-plans, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants attitude, I really had no clue where life would take him. Only after his passing did I realize that he was the one who had life figured out, and it was I, the one who wanted to have things planned out and organized, who had still much to learn.

So Domen, our guardian angel in life and in death, all I want to say is thank you. You’ve been a blessing to every single person who’s had the privilege to know you, and I’ve been so lucky to be your brother for all these years. Every day for the rest of my days, I will try to be more like you, selfless, loving, kind, compassionate and patient. You can keep your sense of humor, but for everything else I will try to be more like you. It will continue to be the greatest honor in my life to be your brother and to be compared to you. With every fiber of my being, I thank you, I love you, and continue to watch over us and give us the strength to be like you. Thank you.