Happy Dad's Day, Dad

June 18, 2022

Happy Father's Day to my dad (August 30, 1934 - February 14, 1997). I still sorely and immensely miss him.

The top photo shows my dad and me in December 1974 at the house of my great-aunt Rose in East Orange, New Jersey. I was 13 years old. The bottom photo shows my dad aboard the Queen Elizabeth II (QEII) cruise ship during the 1980s; I can't remember exactly when it was.

My dad died on his mother's birthday - she passed away on May 22, 1977 - and the day after his sister's birthday.

Dad was cremated. Half of his ashes were interred at Breslau Cemetery in Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, the town where he grew up and where his businesses were located. The other half of his ashes were scattered into the North Atlantic Ocean from a U.S. Navy ship. Dad served 22 years in the Navy and retired at the rank of Commander. He was a few months short of Captain.

He served on a ship in the 1950s, transporting DPs (displaced persons or, as he called them, delayed pilgrims) after World War II from Bremerhaven, Germany, to New York City.

My father had a twin brother named Wilbur who died in 1935 at the age of 9 months due to spinal meningitis.