Father’s Day – Anthony DeLucca Sr.

Anthony DeLucca Sr.

Anthony DeLucca has lived in the same house on Maple Ridge Lane for most of his adult life. He raised a son there. He said goodbye to his wife there. He still takes his coffee with his newspaper in the same chair every morning, in a house that is quieter now than it used to be, and he has made peace with that.

He goes by Anthony to most, Mr. DeLucca to others, Dad to Tony, and a few people just call him the guy that fixes lawnmowers. But that’s just a hobby.

He spent his working years with the rural electric company, the kind of steady, unglamorous work that kept the lights on in homes people took for granted. He never complained about it. That wasn't his way. When retirement came, he accepted it without ceremony and immediately found something else to do, because Anthony is not a man who sits still well.

These days you'll find him tinkering in the garage or at the county fair every August, judging the 4-H small engine displays with the attention he brings to everything mechanical. He knows lawn mowers and grass trimmers the way other men know baseball statistics. Half of Flat Rock has had Tony’s father look at something with a small engine at some point. He shows up, looks it over, fixes what needs fixing, and waves off any offer of payment. He whistles while he works and around the house. He may not know he's doing it, and Tony has never pointed it out.

He doted on his late wife in the quiet ways that don't get written about much. Not grand gestures. Not anniversaries made into productions. The small things. Her tea, made the right way, at the right time. The garden maintained the way she kept it, every spring, without being asked. Her flower beds. He still keeps them up and doesn't make a thing of it.

When Tony came home from the Army for good, something settled in that house that had been unsettled for a while. The two of them can occupy the same space without having to fill it. They can sit in the kitchen, or work in the garage, or watch the game without talking much, and it doesn't feel like silence so much as comfort. Tony’s father has always been a good sounding board. He listens more than he talks, so that when he does respond, the words tend to land.

Anthony talks about June often. Not in a heavy way, not in a way that asks anything of the room. Just matter of factly. The way you mention someone who was supposed to be here and isn't.

Your mother would have loved this, he'll say. Or, She’d be really proud of you. And he’s also proud of Tony, but he doesn’t say it. He doesn't have to. It's there in the way he shows up. In the way he keeps up the marigolds. In the way he makes burgers on Friday nights like he always has. Some things don't change just because everything else did.

Anthony DeLucca is not a complicated man. He would tell you that himself, if you asked. He knows what matters, he tends to what matters, and he doesn't make a production of either. So if you have a lawnmower giving you trouble, you know where to find him. Just listen for the whistling.

You'll find Anthony DeLucca in most of the Originally Pressed Mystery Series. He never plays a huge roll in the books, but the part he plays always matters. Call it a spoiler or a clue if you like. It is what it is.

To every dad out there,  just hoping to do a better job than their fathers before them, I see you.

Happy Father's Day.