Al to Dad, Al to Dad — Calling Dad, Come in, Dad

Your exit left a hole in my heart.

Monday, October 19, 2020

Dear Dad,

It’s been more than nine years since you left this world. But a wound like that doesn’t close quickly.

On Thursday, I went for a checkup at the new doctors’ offices across from Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, the hospital where you died. When I round the bend at Claremont Avenue and your place of death looms large on my right, I always think of that last night: Tuesday, March 8, 2011.