Andrew Brunn: The Man in
Flannel
He
was a tremendous pile of a man, 6 foot 2 and heavyset.
His flannel shirt was tucked in, clarifying his
dimension, as he flailed wildly about the dance floor of
the bar in Queens.
Andrew Brunn was celebrating his 23rd birthday that
night five years ago. Sigalit Cohen watched him all
evening; she had a thing for flannel. His uninhibited
dancing sometimes frightened the girls away, but "Sigal
actually stuck in there and danced with him," said
Patrick Sullivan, a friend.
She got his number and soon made a husband of Mr.
Brunn, an intensely private man. He did not bother to
tell his buddies in the Air National Guard of his
computer studies or even of his marriage. He made little
mention of his move to the Fire Department from the
Police Department.
But after Sigalit danced with him, Mr. Brunn opened
his life to her, revealing his passion for the ocean and
for lighthouses, for movies that seemed to reflect their
own story. They worked through the clashes between his
Catholicism and her Judaism. Mr. Brunn, a devoted surfer,
even persuaded Sigalit, who nearly drowned as a child, to
join him on a flimsy board.
"He said, `I'll be there with you; I'll hold you if
you fall,' so I trusted him," Mrs. Brunn said. "And he
did."
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