Mad Dog Celebrates Women’s History Month

There are a lot of important women in my life, but one in particular that I want to celebrate this Women's History Month is my surrogate mother, Clem Caruso.

When my mother Corky DeMarco passed away in 2007, my mom’s close friend and neighbor Clem Caruso became my surrogate mother. This is how this sequence of events went down.

My mother and I were very close. I am an only child, so of course I was close with my mom. Clem and my mom were very close friends. We lived right across the street from the Carusos from 1968 to 2004 on Applewood Drive in Delta Township. So I had a solid relationship with the family and Clem. Clem saw me grow up from 4^th grade to dealing with my dad’s death in 1993.

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Clem has a reputation as a hard worker, a great cook, and just a very wonderful lady. Clem and my mom were very tight. They were two Italian women who enjoyed each other's company.

We knew when my mom came down with stage four lung cancer that it wasn’t going to be a good ending. My mom passed right before the New Year in 2008. After that very traumatic period in my life, Clem turned into my surrogate mother.

She knew how close I was with my mom, and she really went out of her way to help me out emotionally and gave me advice on anything I asked her. Clem and her late husband Louie Caruso made sure I was doing well under those horrible circumstances. They would meet me almost every day at Mijo’s Diner on Grand River.

That became an everyday fun breakfast after my morning show. I was on from 6-9 am Monday through Friday doing the Mad Dog Show. We really had fun with the late Mijo Kovac who became my friend. Mijo passed away suddenly 10 years ago. That was a horrible situation too. Clem loved Mijo, and she was the one who called me and told me he had passed.

We kept going into Mijo’s Diner after that. Then my life changed forever when I became better acquainted with Mijo’s widow. Of course, that lady was my future wife Carole. It was something that was unexpected but that was a game-changer in my life. Carole and I were married almost three years later.

If Clem and Louie wouldn’t have kept meeting me for breakfast at Mijo’s, I would have never have gotten married. My surrogate mother Clem Caruso just turned 96, and she lives in Delta Retirement Center. God bless her! I will never forget how she helped me through a very tumultuous time in my life.