Dave Patinella, 44, and his sister, Gina Rae Witt, 43, are closer than the average siblings. That’s because, when they were ages 20 and 21, their father lost his 10-year battle with cancer. The year was 1994, and their mother wasn’t a part of their lives at the time. All they had was each other.
“We lived together, became homeowners when we were were still in college, had to depend on each other and figure all that out,” recalled Gina of that difficult time. “On top of that, we were trying to mourn our father at the same time. (My brother) is the one person that shares those memories of our childhood and my dad.”
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Fast forward to 2017 when Dave got engaged and began planning a wedding.
Considering their history together, Gina knew she had to do something extra special for her brother. That’s when she remembered a 46-year-old commercial, one her family had given up on finding.
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The commercial– filmed in 1971 for Allstate Insurance– featured Gina and Dave’s dad, Guisto Patinella. The family had joked about the commercial, which aired on TV only briefly, for years. They’d talked about tracking the infamous commercial down, but the years passed and it never happened.
When Dave got engaged, Gina came up with the idea of finding the lost commercial as a wedding present and contacted Allstate.
It took an Allstate representative 6 weeks to find the commercial since it had been recorded on a film reel. After digging deep through their archives, the representative finally tracked it down.
Youtube
Soon after, Gina stunned everyone by playing the video at her brother’s rehearsal dinner. It was the first time Gina and Dave had heard their father’s voice in over 20 years.
“There’s nothing that compares to being able to hear somebody and watch them move,” said Gina of the video. “I know it’s just a ghost, but it’s a really good ghost. It’s more than we had before.”
Watch the video below to see Dave’s reaction to his sisters touching surprise.
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