I miss my Dad!

Let me start, Ladies, by saying that in no way do I want to put a damper on anyone's happiness during this special time. And while we all want everyone to have a great time at our weddings, all that I ask is that noone Drink and Drive. PLEASE!

On page A50-A51 in today's Newsday is my Dad's story.

Hugs to everyone!

Thank you, I'm sorry for your loss. That message is so important to get out....I can't believe how many grown adults do such a careless thing...

OH MY GOODNESS! I am so sorry you had to and still have to deal with this sorrow. I just read the article and tears came to my eyes when I read what your mother had said about her youngest daughter getting married.

I wish you all the best! Your father will be with you today and ALWAYS!

to you and your family!

I don't have Newsday, but I just wanted to express my support and sympathy. What Lauren said is true - your dad is always with you!

My goodness I am so sorry. If you need a friend I am here...


May 9, 2003


Victor Garcia said he had been up all night celebrating the beginning of the year 2000. He had drunk eight beers already when he and two cousins got in the family van just before 9 a.m. on Jan. 1 to buy some more beer at a nearby store.

With the booze on board, Garcia, 19, who had never held any driver's license, said in a prison interview that he was headed back to the family's Kings Park home. According to Suffolk County police, he was 'in an alcohol intoxicated condition,' with a blood level of .16 as he drove south along Old Commack Road.

Garcia said he doesn't remember what happened next. Police 'said I was speeding and I crossed the line in the middle,' before crashing head-on into an oncoming sport utility vehicle. 'I don't remember seeing the other car,' he said, speaking from Greene Correctional Facility in Coxsackie, N.Y., where he is serving 4 to 12 years for vehicular manslaughter.

The other driver, Eugene Goldrick, 69, of Commack, a retired New York City police lieutenant driving north on his way to church, was dead at the scene. Police reported that much of the driver's section of his vehicle was destroyed by the impact of the crash.

Garcia said he and his cousins suffered only minor cuts and bruises.

It was not the first time Garcia had driven while intoxicated. State records show he had been arrested for drunken driving several months earlier in a case that had not yet been resolved in court. He said he never got a New York license because he had come into the country without documentation from Mexico the year before. He also never held a Mexican license.

Highway safety officials say stricter enforcement is needed to keep previous offenders off the road, and figures indicate more than 11 percent of drivers in fatal accidents are driving without valid licenses.

Goldrick, who retired in 1992 after 38 years on the police force, left a large family and even more friends, his wife, Joan, said. 'At the wake there were at least 800 people there.'

Joan Goldrick remembers her husband as 'easygoing. No matter what your problem, he was, 'don't worry, there's a way out of it. Don't get crazy.' He was a wonderful person for tempering what I am.'

But after Garcia robbed her of her husband, 'everything is different,' for her family, including five grown children, she said. 'My youngest daughter is getting married.' With her father gone, 'her oldest brother will walk her down the aisle.'

At his sentencing in June 2000 in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, Garcia said: 'I want to ask the forgiveness from the family. I wish none of this had ever happened. I know the pain they must be going through.'

Members of the Goldrick family spoke, too. His daughter, Beth, said: 'There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of my father ... I miss his smiling face. I miss the pep in his step. I miss our morning walks. I miss his jokes ... I miss his love.'

Garcia says he will not be returning to Kings Park when he gets out of prison, perhaps as early as the end of this year. Instead state authorities will turn him over to the U.S. immigration services for deportation.

As he sits in a lonely cell 150 miles north of Long Island, Garcia said, 'It's not worth it' to drink and drive. 'You have so many things to lose.'

I am so sorry about your loss!!!
Although you can't see your father,just know that he is always with you and will be smiling with you on your wedding day.

I'm so sorry

I am so sorry for your loss....

Your story has me in tears! I'm so sorry for everything you've gone through!

cry ..cry ... that was soo sad - I am sooo sorry -

I am sooo sorry. I understand what you are going through. Because of Alcohol, my brother won't be at my wedding. Just remember your Dad will always be with you, and he'll be at your side on the day of your wedding.

Lots of hugs to you and your family.

Thank you so much, Ladies!!!!!

Your support means the world to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANYTIME!!! WE ARE ALL HERE FOR YOU!!!

I am sooo sorry about your lost.

I'm so sorry

thank you for reminding us about how important that is. so sorry for your loss. sending hugs

I am so sorry for you loss

Your dad will be at your wedding, if only in spirit, but he will be there.

I am so very sorry for your loss.