[Frangyomory]

My father was my hero. There were three of us kids. My older sister, myself and my younger brother who passed away in 2007. After dad died, we talked about what he meant to us and each of us thought we were his favorite! Amazing how he made each of us feel special.

He was a man who only had a grade school education. He was born in 1913 and because his dad left his mother with five young boys, they spent some years in a Catholic orphanage. This left an imprint on dad and family was everything to him. The boys got out of the orphanage one by one and found their mom and each other and became a family once again. He was 27 and my mom was 21 when they married.

My dad was a doorman and a building superintendent and always had two jobs but made sure that we all had the best education possible. We didn't have everything we wanted but we had everything we needed. Because he was concerned about the NYC public schools, he worked extra hours to pay tuition to enroll us in a Catholic school in grade school and then in high school. That was important to him.

He didn't believe in credit. He saved for anything he needed to buy. I loved him so very much and we all knew he loved us. We lost him at the age of 61, in fact, one week before his 62nd birthday in 1975. My mother lived until 2004 but a day never went by that she and we didn't miss him.

This man with no high school education did all the family's income taxes every year. He helped us kids with our homework and always had the right answers. He wouldn't think of laying a hand on us kids. He couldn't hit us because of the way his father treated him and his greatest fear was that his children would not love him.

Yes, my dad was and will always be my hero. I know he is in heaven because people like him have special places in heaven and he was there to meet my mom when she joined him. Does not matter how long it has been, I miss him and I hope that one day we will all be together in heaven once again.