Giuseppi ''Peppe'' Ramundo shared moments both commonplace and profound with the man he called ''Brother Joe.''
''I lost my best friend,'' Mr. Ramundo said Thursday, sitting in his Price Hill tailor shop and poring over photos and mementos of Cardinal Joseph Louis Bernardin.
Cardinal Bernardin was archbishop of Cincinnati when he married Mr. Ramundo's son, Carmen, in May 1979. Two years later, the archbishop baptized Mr. Ramundo's granddaughter, Tricia.
In February 1983, a proud Mr. Ramundo knelt in the front pew at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral and watched as his best friend was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II.
It was private moments the men shared that gave Mr. Ramundo solace as he mourned the death of the friend he alternately referred to as ''Brother Joe'' or ''Eminence.''
One moment he remembered was when the cardinal lingered over a bowl of Mr. Ramundo's spaghetti and the two spoke in Mr. Ramundo's native tongue about Italia. Another was when Cardinal Bernardin visited Cincinnati and the pair indulged in Campari -- a bitter Italian liquor that, when mixed with soda, was the cardinal's favorite drink.
Another memory was of when Mr. Ramundo slept in the same bed the pope slept in during one of his stays at the cardinal's residence in Chicago.
The friends, both 68, last spoke on Nov. 6.
The cardinal answered the private phone by his bed and told Mr. Ramundo in a weak voice he did not feel good well and had chest pains.
That was all Mr. Ramundo heard until Wednesday night at 8 p.m. when Monsignor Kenneth Velo, a close friend and aide to the cardinal, telephoned to say Cardinal Bernardin was in a coma.
''I stayed up all night and this morning. I opened (turned on) the television, and when I heard he died, I could say nothing. I was speechless,'' Mr. Ramundo said.
Their friendship began in 1972 when the then-archbishop officiated at a confirmation ceremony at St. Antoninus Church in Covedale. Mr. Ramundo gave him a business card after the service.
''I made all his clothing from then on, his topcoats, all his suits,'' Mr. Ramundo said.
Humble. A prince of the church. Christlike. Those are the words that tripped off Mr. Ramundo's tongue when he was asked about the cardinal.
Carmen Ramundo remembers his rainy wedding day. Cardinal Bernardin joined Carmen and his wife, Karen -- and promised the couple that when they walked out of the church, ''it will stop raining.''
And it did.
''Every time I left his presence, I was so charged up,'' Carmen Ramundo said. He shook his head. ''But he and my dad, they were just like brothers.''
One of the last big moments Cardinal Bernardin shared with the Ramundo family was in September 1995, when the cardinal volunteered to officiate at Tricia Ramundo's confirmation at Our Lady of Victory Church in Delhi Township.
Cardinal Bernardin The cardinal was undergoing chemotherapy at the time and was optimistic he could beat the cancer.
When the Ramundos traveled to Chicago last in July, Cardinal Bernardin treated them all to dinner at an Italian restaurant and happily proclaimed, ''I'm cancer-free.'' He also gave Mr. Ramundo a rosary from Pope John Paul II.
In August, when Cardinal Bernardin learned his pancreatic cancer was terminal, he called Mr. Ramundo to tell him the news before facing reporters.
''Tomorrow, I'm going to have a conference to tell the world the cancer is back,'' Mr. Ramundo recalled the cardinal as saying.
'''Peppe,' he said, 'I'm going to go home now to the Lord.'''
Published Nov. 15, 1996.
