Father has crossed over.

Father has crossed over

by Nicholas Andrian on Monday, January 18, 2010 at 1:59am

As I drove down the Shore to visit my father on Sunday, for the last time as it turns out, my thoughts seemed to center on my early childhood memories of him rather than on more recent memories: The time we visited the Staten Island zoo (I was about four) and we were in the building where the big cats were housed. The roaring was frightening, as two lionesses were fighting while the guards were spraying them with power hoses to separate them; his rushing me to St. Michael's Hospital in Newark during an asthma attack at 2 a.m., stopping a passing car to take me there; driving to Olympic Amusement Park in Maplewood in his elegant Packard and going on all the rides with me, especially the bumping cars; his hysterical laughter when a friend of his took us to a nearby park to show off his remote-controlled airplane only to have it come crashing straight down during a loop-the-loop; his hand-painting his old green Plymouth red when I said to him, "Why isn't your car red, like a fire chief's?"
I have much more to write. My heart is heavy knowing that his time has come, but I am fulfilled inside for having had him at all the crucial times in my life.