It wasn't a perfect beach day, but it was a beach day.  And to Domenick, any day spent on the beach was a perfect beach day.

Dom didn't get to see the beach this year, except in the eyes and sounds and smells of those of us around him.  It seems when someone loses that one thing, the one thing they love beyond all else, they lose their will to continue.  It happened with my mother, as she descended into blindness, and it happened to Dom when he could no longer get to the beach.

I first met Dom, appropriately, on Pompano Beach in Manasquan.  In those years, the early years, Dom would see us approach and jump up to meet us; to help us carry our paraphanelia onto the beach.  He'd be sitting right next to the bulkhead; his cooler hanging on it.  Often there'd be surprises hidden in his cooler....like Mike's mom's purse, Domenick's cooler was a secret place of hidden treasures.  Eggplant sandwiches...tomatoes from his garden....Wawa lemonade.  And what he had, he shared.  Especially if he liked you.  Then, he'd make your favorites.  Like stuffed olives!

As the years flew by, and our lives changed, Dom's role in our lives changed as well.  When David arrived home from Korea, he became Beach Grandpa, Grandpa Dom, and the love affair between David and Dom began.  In our family, we aren't bound by blood, and no Grandpa and Grandson could have loved each other more than David and GPa Dom.  We'd get to the beach, and GPa would bound up to meet us.  Sometimes to carry the chairs....more often to get David.  Perhaps Dom's heart went a little bad watching as David grew fearless of the waves, each year venturing further and further.

Somehow, things changed over these past few years.  Little changes at first.  Dom stopped going into the water...one or the other of the beach friends would help him on and off the beach...he couldn't get onto Pompano any longer, but instead sat at the inlet...then last year....he couldn't get onto the beach at all, but would sit in the gazebo at the inlet and enjoy the beach that way.  This year, he wasn't able to get to the gazebo. 

Yesterday, wasn't a perfect beach day, but it was a day on the beach, and as everyone knows, any day spent on the beach is a perfect beach day.

Domenick.  We love you.  We miss you.  But we know, where you are, you're enjoying a string of perfect beach days.  Rest peacefully, dear friend.

Thank you for the gift of you in our lives.