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CARL FLICKINGER: Golf, Gadgets and Gifts

 

Carl Flickinger considered his work hours at Cantor Fitzgerald to be one of the job's biggest benefits. Though he started at 7 a.m., he was home by 6:30 p.m. with his family in Congers in Rockland County.

Mr. Flickinger, 38, slid comfortably into domestic routines. Every Saturday, he shopped for groceries before taking his 11-year-old twin sons to the mall for new sneakers or jeans. In the evening, he checked his sons' homework and read to his 5-year-old daughter. On and off the job, he drove himself. He would not just play an easy 18 holes of golf &emdash; he took lessons and practiced on the driving range.

Mr. Flickinger was a gadget guy, said his wife, Kathy, and he liked to buy the latest nifty devices as gifts for friends.

Every morning before his commute, he bought coffee at the Dairy Mart and left it for his wife. And at 11 a.m., he always called home. "Just to touch base," she said. "Just to tell me how his morning was going."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times