Perhaps a letter to the Bayonne Community News last September said it all, when Anton Grinkovich wrote to thank his friend Ruth Preminger for calling the Office of the Mayor when she had not heard from him in a week.
“I was passed out on the floor,” he wrote. And since he was the only one with a key to the apartment, the Fire Department had to climb in through the side window. Finding Grinkovich, they called for an ambulance to transport him to the Bayonne Medical Center, where he received, as he put it, “A plus” care for 24 days.
He was living in the senior housing on Avenue E near the Hudson Bergen Light Rail station at the time. Since Ruth Preminger was used to receiving two or three calls a day from him, she said she was worried when the calls suddenly stopped.
When it happened again last month, she found him on the floor dead.
“He was a bright man with an uncanny memory.” – Ruth Preminger
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“It is inexplicable as to how our lives came together,” said Preminger, who is well-known around town. “Our first connection was a phone call I received asking me if I would like to go to the ‘Regis and Kelly’ TV program in New York with him, leaving here on a 7 a.m. bus.”
Since Preminger attended services at Temple Emanu-El every morning, she thanked him and said she could not go but thanked him anyway.
“That was the beginning,” she said. “Anton appeared at the Temple and continued to attend. His appearance was a surprise. He had the look and dress of a homeless man.”
Since he had walked to the temple on Kennedy Boulevard and West 29th Street from his home near West 16th Street, he asked to be driven home. At one point, she gave him some of her husband’s clothing to wear.
During what became a regular trip to bring Anton home, Preminger learned a lot about him.
“He was a bright man with an uncanny memory and [he] knew many executives, officers, officials, and Bayonne business people,” she said. “He remembered dates, times and incidents that surprised me.”
Yet his life was also filled with tragedy, she said.
“He was divorced. His wife and daughters lived in the South,” Preminger said. “His only son was killed in an accident.”
A graduate of Bayonne schools, Anton was an only child, and when Preminger met him, he was without family and had few friends.
“He called me ‘cupcake,’ ” Preminger said. “And he always ended his phone calls with ‘I love you.’ He often spoke of his son in heaven, with whom he now abides.”
Preminger said even though she only knew him for a few years – and in a situation of distress – she believed that every human being needs someone to care for them.
“Life as we live it cannot be tossed aside,” she said. “May Anton Grinkovich find peace in heaven together with his son, and I hope I was able to bring some comfort into his life.”