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CALIXTO ANAYA JR.: Doing Things Right

 

Calixto Anaya Jr.'s wife, Marie, remembers the New York City firefighter everyone knew as Charlie as "very attentive to the little things that keep love alive," whether it was taking days off for activities with their three children or showing up with flowers when she did not expect them.

"Charlie always wanted to do things the right way," Mrs. Anaya said. When they were married in 1990 in a simple civil service, Mr. Anaya insisted that they begin saving for the big church wedding her parents could not afford. Six months later, they marched down the aisle of St. Rita's Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn.

Mr. Anaya, a former Marine who re- enlisted when the Persian Gulf War broke out in 1991, believed true patriotism meant flying the American flag, not only in front of their home in Suffern, N.Y., but also wherever the family came to rest on camping trips or jaunts to the beach.

Mr. Anaya, 35, loved the Yankees in baseball and the Giants in football with similar exuberance. He preserved the hole he punched in his basement ceiling while celebrating the Yankees' World Series victory over the Mets last year.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times