Sarno calls Menino a friend and says the two kept in contact. Just before Menino left office, Sarno recalls the Boston mayor offering some unsolicited advice.
“‘Hey kid,’ he’d say, ‘I might be retiring, but I got this little gig in academia.'” Sarno says Menino told him. “‘You should think about that when you’re thinking of going. We have to make decisions every five minutes, they can make decisions every six months. You know I’m here, call me if you need me. ‘”
Sarno says he always admired how Menino didn’t forget his roots, yet could still move Boston forward.
“So whether it was Mrs. O’Leary or Mrs. Santaniello calling on a pot hole or something that needed to be done, you need to follow through with that,” Sarno says. “Or putting together multimillion dollars or billion dollar deals, that’s the gambit of being a mayor.”
Sarno says he reached out to Menino last week upon learning of his failing health. He says he left a brief voicemail message in Italian.
“Stare bene, stare forte, which means stay well my friend, and stay strong.”