From The Desk of John Caglione, Jr.
One description says, “One who does great deeds but receives little or no recognition for them”.
As the late Comic George Carlin put it, “ As soon as someone is identified as an unsung hero,
they no longer are”. My unsung hero is and will always be Helen Kelly aka Helen Caglione my dearly beloved wife, best friend and mentor in life. It seems serendipitous that a young financially struggling NBC makeup guy would meet a Bronx born street smart girl with a successful career in the high finance world of Morgan Stanley, talk about worlds apart. Like I said back then I was struggling and just came off living through years of lets say not exactly your” Leave it to Beaver” type household including my parents messy divorce.
I was not at all thinking about a serious relationship, no way. Then Helen who along with my cousin and some friends came to SNL in 1979 as my guests to watch the live show. We met there, me being hit by a bolt of lightning, hopefully her too thus beginning our courtship, Well she took me right into her world with open arms and everything changed in ways I could never imagine.
Helen was born into a strong and close Irish Catholic Family, her being first generation, where
everyone was ALL IN and shared their lives together. A solid family structure with a healthy faith
in God and country. Over our 40 years it would be these strong character trait’s that would
become the GLUE that would keep our family together safe, sound and through thick and thin.
We started our family right away with Lauren being born 2 years into our marriage then Nicole to follow a few years later. Helen made the commitment to hang up her career to raise the girls in my constant absence as I was just beginning to travel away a lot for a film career. Wherever I
was working on distant locations I always knew Helen would have a good dinner on the table
dinner at 6p. Her dedication of FAMILY STRUCTURE was the vital lifeline for our show biz
family. Her personal sacrifice in every regard is immeasurable and unwavering to our kids and
her understanding and supporting my career. Never once through the years did Helen give me
the ultimatum its ‘either me or your career ‘and I was away a lot on many locations ! Helen
constantly gives unconditionally to me the solid support to be creative and free to be a film
makeup artist. If I’ve accomplished anything in my work and career it is no doubt because of the
inner strength ,love, care and guidance of my Unsung Hero.
Helen’s constant care of this family was the saving grace in me finding sobriety from Alcohol
addiction. It was a tough couple of years through this problem but on one fateful night of binge
drinking , me a mess, Helen with tears streaming, pointing her finger right in my face screamed
the magic words , “ I am not Giving Up on You !!” It was an epiphany moment that changed
everything I was saved on the road to recovery and never looked back. Well I did need to find
pro help and I did but Helen has always been there , solid and caring. She is the steady rudder
in our family you can ask anyone who’s been lucky to know her. I thank God I met her that night
on SNL because that’s where I started my career and my” real” LIFE ! This is dedicated to My
Unsung Hero HELEN !!
Check out my latest YouTube Makeup Tutorial with Helen!
I created a glamorous beauty makeup on her and here are some tips that you ladies can use when you do your own beauty makeup!
Subscribe to my YouTube channel so you never miss a lesson!
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