Gorno family mourns dealership's co-owner, his beloved dog

Edwin Jolliffe Sr. died on Christmas Eve, three days after his partner. That's particularly sad if you knew them or knew what they meant to Downriver.

When you add the part about the dog, though, it's ...

Confounding? Wrenching? Uplifting? Ed Jr. hasn't decided yet, but when he thinks about Sassy, he gets chills.

Officially, Ed Sr. died of a heart attack, a few weeks shy of his 86th birthday. But he was already in the hospital with what his family says was cancer when it hit him. George Gorno Sr., 61, had been tussling with cancer himself for 2 1/2 years.

They were friends, brothers-in-law and the co-owners of Gorno Ford in Woodhaven, where a third generation will now take the wheel. Ed Sr. married George's older sister in 1951, back when Chickie Gorno was the prettiest teller at Trenton State Bank, and soon afterward the new son-in-law joined the family business.

When Ed Jr. gave his dad's eulogy Tuesday, he spoke of a Purple Heart and yellow station wagons and red raspberries. They were familiar stories, polished over years of dinners in a family where four of the five kids still live within walking distance of their parents' house in Grosse Ile.

The black German shepherd figured into a new story and an old one, too, from when Ed Sr. had his stroke six years ago. He insisted on an unauthorized trip home from the hospital, and he wouldn't say why. It turned out he wanted to see Sassy while he had the chance, just in case the stroke took him out.

A man who gave quietly

Ed Jr. didn't tell the story about the auction, but he wishes he'd remembered to.

Probably 10 years ago at a fundraiser for a breast cancer charity, Ed Jr. was in the front row, bidding on a glass and metal sculpture of an angel. Behind him, someone was topping every raise. He turned and saw that the other bidder was Ed Sr.

"You can afford it," his dad said.

One Friday, Ed Jr. took his parents to the fish fry at the Grosse Ile VFW. Some members mentioned conversationally that the hall was having money problems. Ed Sr. went home, grabbed his checkbook and paid off the mortgage.

"We were told that we were lucky to have everything we needed," says Monica Southward, the third of the four daughters who arrived before Ed Jr. "His motto was, 'When you are fortunate, do not forget the less fortunate.' "

He'd give quietly, though. He wasn't trying to be showy ... except with the station wagons.

Everything served a passion

There were 15 years of them, through the late 1980s, replaced in true auto dealer fashion every eight or 12 months: Country Squire LTDs with yellow paint and wood-grain sides. They were great for hauling kids and antiques to the 200-acre farm near Allen where he raised cattle and grew berries.

He insisted on yellow so other drivers would either see him coming or notice him if he'd broken down. "The last one, we had to call Ford and pull strings," says Ed Jr., 46, the general manager at the dealership. "You couldn't even order yellow anymore, so they had it painted the same place they paint school buses."

It had burgundy seats, and it was ghastly. "But it served a purpose," Ed Jr. says. "Everything he did served a passion of his, the farm or the family or the antiques."

Or Sassy.

Heading into Christmas, Ed Sr. was fading. Doctors gave his family permission to bring the 9-year-old dog for a visit, as long as she was bathed and vouched for by a vet.

A grandson dropped her off to start the process, and half an hour later, Ed Jr.'s phone rang.

"Your dog is dying," the vet said.

No one knew it, but just like Edwin Jolliffe Sr., Sassy had cancer. Just like his, her abdomen was filling with blood. The vet put her down on the 22nd, and a few hours past midnight on the 24th, Ed Sr. joined her.

"We're dumbfounded," says Ed Jr., and devastated, but at the same time, they're comforted. A man needs his dog.

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