Dear Editor:
My childhood hero recently passed away due to pancreatic cancer. His name was Daniel Fitzgibbons and he was my older brother by 18 months. He died just short of his 61st birthday. He was my brother who would race home to our parents when I skinned my knees learning to roller skate to make sure I would get iodine and bandaids. He would save his allowance to be sure I got the Roberta Flack album I wanted for my birthday or try unsuccessfully to introduce me to the songs of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin when my taste ran to Bobby Sherman or the Archies. He also made sure he played the song “Sixteen Candles” when that birthday came around for me.
Daniel was the perfect son serving as an altar boy at Our Lady of Grace Church, volunteering at the school and later doing the same at St Joseph’s High School in West New York which I also attended to be near him before he went to St. Peter’s College. He had a somewhat caustic whit and was the go to guy in the neighborhood in problem solving. He had countless friends and I was always welcomed into groups when people were told “she’s okay. She’s Daniel’s sister.” He let me play with his GI Joe dolls and his matchbox cars. He had many health issues in his life but never complained.
One of the jobs I had when he had a hernia operation and couldn’t bend over to pick things off the floor was to help him with these tasks. I never knew how one person could drop so many decks of cards, utensils, change and paper clips on the floor. He would drop these with a devilish look in my direction. But you had to love him.
He was never one to complain or show a lot of emotion, only when he married and his daughter was born—then he was a happy man with a capital H. and when his daughter and son in law had two children he was blissful. A hard worker, the guy who started his work life as a stock boy at Rite Aide, he ended up being a vice president at Citicorp having risen through the ranks over 40 years. He was the epitomy of our parents’ creed to him, our brother Brian and myself that hard work paid off.
I miss you. I love you. You left us too soon.
The only thought that comforts me is that the angels must have gotten lonely in heaven and needed a go to guy in Daniel to make sure things ran correctly with the help of our deceased parents, Katherine and Maurice Fitzgibbons, my wonderful Uncle Mickey and unforgettable cousin Maurice. Do me a favor Dan and if you see a beautiful Dalmatian named Sam in heaven, let him know how much with love him too.
Yours
Mary Fitzgibbons