IN LOVING MEMORY
Roma Pierro-Wolf
On Wednesday February 7, our 15 year old, 8lb “Morkie,” our amazing Roma Pierro-Wolf left us.
She passed away peacefully and painlessly with us, wrapped in Jen’s arms, after having suffered from kidney failure.
This world will never be the same.
Roma was a force of nature, a warrior princess, an amazing stage actor, a kind and quirky companion, fearless world traveler, and the best friend anyone could ever have.
For such a little dog, she was so BIG with love. Beyond anything we had ever experienced before or ever will.
Each morning, she would wait quietly between us in bed, until the time for her morning medicine, and then, at that precise time, she would pounce on Jen, put her tiny arms around Jen’s neck and then give Jen the most passionate and loving puppy kisses!
Then, she would jump off of her. I would yell out “Where are my puppy kisses?” And she would look at me, pause for a second, and then give me only 1 puppy kiss and smile.
She loved messing with me.
But later on in the day, when I came home, Roma would run to the door to greet me, and then run to her Roma bed in the office where I would meet her, and she would give me puppy kisses and puppy kisses and puppy kisses.
One day, I counted 150 kisses, until she jumped out of the bed, ran and got her ball, and threw it at me to play. To this day, I am not sure if she was just “working the room” in order to get me to play with her. But I don’t care. I got Roma’s puppy kisses!
All Roma wanted was to be with us, and we just wanted to be with her.
We had the unique opportunity to travel the world with her. We went to Italy on numerous occasions, Croatia, Quebec, Montreal, and so many other wonderful places, where we biked, swam, hiked and ate! (Yes, Roma biked in her bike basket which we traveled with, and she loved it!) And she was never a problem. We would fly with her in her “travel case” on Jen’s lap where she would sleep or just stare into her Mommy’s eyes for hours.
At home, we would bike all over the city together, taking pictures in front of amazing Street Art, or in front of whatever food we would eat, and there was nothing more fun.
Our New York City Adventures evolved into us filming Roma on our bike rides with a Go Pro camera, as she would jump up and down and look left and right and then peek around to see if Mommy was ok. These videos were later turned into an Interactive IPAD Children’s book entitled Roma’s New York City Adventures sold on Apple Books.
In 2012 and 2013, Ken had the unique opportunity to ACT with Roma in his play, DAD AND THE DOG, all about a Father who was left by his family for six weeks in the Summer of 1969, with only the support of the family dog. We didn’t train Roma to do anything. We simply had her be with Ken, and oh my God, did she show up and support Ken as Ken supported her and she did the most amazing things.
There was one scene close to the beginning of the play, where it was their first night alone, and Ken was watching THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW. In the script, when Dean Martin starts to sing AMORE, Ken shuts off the TV, and goes into a mournful tirade about giving up on love.
One night, in performance, when Dean Martin started to sing AMORE, Roma ran to Ken from the other side of the couch and started kissing him. He took it in and went with it, while thinking to himself “Holy Mackerel, I never could have written anything as wonderful as this!”
And the reviews proved it:
Martin Denton - nytheatre.com
“The element that makes this new play authentically unique is the show's star. Playwright-actor-director Ken Wolf plays the protagonist, Hank (his Dad). But it is Roma Pierro-Wolf, a charismatic and utterly delightful furry Morkie, who steals the show, without uttering a single word (or bark) onstage. Basically, all she needs to do is to gaze adoringly into her co-stars eyes, or sink into a chair on her back demanding that her belly be scratched. She's got everyone in the house in the palm of her... paw. Dad and the Dog is sweet, often funny, and quite touching. I do think, though, that maybe the billing needs to be switched: thanks to the infinitely cute Ms. Pierro-Wolf, it sure did feel like "Dog and the Dad" to me!”
Best scene partner and best life partner ever!!!
Roma really didn’t love hanging out with other dogs. We believed she thought she was a person, and in our experience she was. She would eat with us at each meal as part of the family. After dinner, she would often run to her toy box and pull out her giant octopus that she would swing around comically, bark at incessantly, and then pounce on. Still not sure if she was simply doing that for us to laugh or not, but it was always wonderful fun.
And at the end of the day, when Roma felt it was time for bed, she would come to Ken’s office, and give him a stern look, and he would stop everything and head to bed to be with her and Jen.
Ken loved that so so much. It was wonderful to be treated as part of the pack.
And we were an amazing pack, the three of us.
Roma, Jen and Ken.
Roma loved her Nonna and Papa, Jen’s mother and father. She had a special bond with each. They were always greeted with a myriad of puppy kisses. Roma would love going to visit for there was always an abundance of love and FOOD. And ROMA loved LOVE and FOOD.
At Jen’s parent’s house, I would get a kick out of seeing Jen and her mother chatting together with Roma in-between them as if she was participating in the conversation, and in a way, she was.
She was the kindest, most compassionate and loving soul we have ever known.
Jen and Roma were “connected at the hip,” and they were. Jen would instantly know if anything was wrong with Roma, and Roma would instantly know if Jen was feeling out of sorts, and then go to her, and make things better. They were intertwined in so many loving and beautiful ways throughout the day as Jen worked from home.
They were true soul mates.
Best friends.
Mother and daughter.
Yes, mother and daughter.
When it was made clear from our vet that Roma was leaving us, we knew we would have to let her go before the pain began. Wrapped in her favorite blanket, held warmly by Jen, Roma passed on. But right before she left, Roma reached out to Jen and gave her three Roma kisses, and then looked at Ken, and gave him one beautiful Roma kiss, and smiled.
Roma made our world abundant with love.
She was our best friend, and our heart.
We are honored and so so so blessed to have spent these 15 amazing years together.
The three of us.
