Lenny’s sister Linda spoke directly from her heart
to those of the audience…
On behalf of my entire family, I would like to thank everyone for coming here tonight and for your support. It means a great deal to us to know that people care and that you may even understand how we feel since the tragic events of September 11th.
My family was already upset about the huge loss of life on that terrible day, even before we realized that this was going to affect us personally. It would be an understatement for me to say that this has devastated my entire family and our lives.
My brother Lenny was truly a great person. He would do anything, for anyone, at anytime. All you had to do was ask. It was probably that quality in him that made him join the Police Department and then the Fire Department; he loved to help people. There was no problem too big or too small for him, he would do anything and do it with a smile.
As much as he had a great smile, he was real good at making the people around him smile. He had a funny and crazy sense of humor, which went right along with the way he spoke. He had his own language and everyone who knew him had to catch on and eventually you learned to speak his language too. He would say things like “Whadda ya got?” which could mean hello, what’s going on or how are you. “I’m going toes up” would mean that he was going to sleep. He had so many sayings.
My brother was painfully faithful to all of his favorite teams especially the Mets, the Islanders and the Dallas Cowboys. In a house where there were 11 kids growing up, only two were Met fans, the rest were Yankee fans. In 1986 when the Yankees didn’t make it to the World Series, I rooted for the Mets because they were NY. Lenny never once rooted for the Yankees. He would say that no true Met fan would ever root for the Yankees to win. You can imagine all the teasing that went on in 2000, when the Mets and Yankees were in the World Series. We called each other constantly.
Shortly after September 11th, when I heard that the Mets were getting Mo Vaughn, I picked up the phone to call him and tease him a little. And then it hit me (like a ton of bricks all over again) that I couldn’t call him, I can’t talk to him.
The pain is just as sharp today as it was on September 11th. It doesn’t seem like six months ago. I really just want you to know that he was our hero before this happened and now he is everyone’s hero. He was truly one of the greatest people you could have ever met. He was fantastic brother, son, father, husband, uncle and friend. Not a day has gone by that we don’t think about him and wish that he was still here.
When I gave a eulogy at his memorial, I spoke about some things from our childhood. Like how we would only let him play house with us if he was the dog. And how he would get mad at us when we would steal his G.I. Joe’s so they could marry our Barbie’s and then we would convince him to play with us so he wouldn’t take them away. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for him to have so many sisters.
It’s these memories and so many more that will keep us going and he is still very much a part of our lives and we love and miss him very much.
Again, we thank you for your support and hope you enjoy yourselves this evening.