by Dennis Augustine
My first memory of my father was on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic. It was August 1953. I was three years old, living in Hoboken, NJ, when I boarded the Saturnia, an elegant Italian ocean liner named after the ancient Tuscan town of Saturnia. With my beautiful mother, Maria Augustine (née Micalizzi), and my handsome dad, Frank Augustine, we set sail for my mother’s birthplace in Sicily to visit my grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
It was the first of many unforgettable journeys to the “old country” that I would take through my adult life. Though my mother was nine years younger than Dad, she passed on Mother’s Day 2013 at the age of 88. My father, on the other hand, died of natural causes just shy of 101.
This weekend, I light a candle for you, Dad, for Father’s Day with love and gratitude. Thank you for the memories, I miss you always. And to my late, beloved brother, Michael Augustine—a wonderful father who left us too soon—I wish you, too, a Happy Father’s Day in the heavenly realm.
Let us keep the flame alive for all the fathers and father figures who are no longer with us—but whose spirit still guides us every day.
