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Lalo. “The reason I say that is because Ed did a lot of duties. He would work a beat car one night. Another night, I would see him on the desk. Another time, lock-up. Another night working the radio room on third watch. And he always had that smile. It looked like John Travolta from a distance. You could see that smile from a long ways.”
Eduardo Marmolejo had that rare gift of touching people, of moving them, of inspiring them, of making them laugh. Even after being lost. His funeral Mass was a true celebration, a little bit of the roast he would have loved and a validation of how he will always be there. Forever.
When Becca stepped up to read a letter she wrote to her fa- ther, nothing was more evident. It moved the entire Department to tears and cheers with a wonderful articulation of sentiments such as:
“And now that you have clocked out, it’s my turn to cover the shift,” Becca extolled. “It’s my turn to be the bigger person, just like you.”

The father-daughter relationship has been commemorated with school dances and honored in books, movies and songs. But no greater personification might have come than when 15-year-old Becca read the letter she wrote to her dad in the days after he was lost.
The way Lalo touched his family and his Department is best left to these words:
Dear Daddy:
I miss you so much. I cannot tell you how many times I
Rebecca Marmolejo reads the letter she wrote to her father at the funeral Mass.
have cried thinking about you.
Every night I go to bed, I feel like you’re going to come
home from work.
When I wake up, I still feel like you are going to drive me
to school and kiss me on the cheek before I leave.
I can still hear your voice cheering for me at all my soccer
games and basketball games and cross-country meets.
You were always there no matter what. You were the glue
that kept our family together.
You always had faith in me and that’s what kept me go-
ing. My drive to success was all for Grandma and Mommy and you.
I will try my hardest to be strong for Maddie, Sophie and Mommy.
36 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2019