GOOD DEEDS HONOR FATHER'S MEMORY.Byline: Dennis McCarthy Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
The lesson Jim Bachelis wanted his young children to learn someday some·day adv. At an indefinite time in the future. Usage Note: The adverbs someday and sometime express future time indefinitely: We'll succeed someday. Come sometime. was simple: Be a good person, help others, make your daddy proud. It was late on a Saturday afternoon early last year when Wendy Bachelis called her children, Lauren and Brett, into her bedroom to share his teaching. All the literature she had read and all the experts she had talked to said this was the best time. Late afternoon, not at night when it might be too close to their bedtimes. You didn't want them having bad dreams. Her children weren't supposed to be seeing this videotape videotape Magnetic tape used to record visual images and sound, or the recording itself. There are two types of videotape recorders, the transverse (or quad) and the helical. that their father had made for them six months before he died, the young Encino widow knew. Her husband wanted her to wait until the kids were older and could handle it better. But Jim had been wrong about that, Wendy now knew. Her husband, who had died of cancer at 41 only a month earlier, hadn't taken into account how quickly even young kids grow up when they're forced to. How they'd be struggling with his death and desperately needed something tangible to reach out and touch - something to hold on to, even if it was only a videotape. No, it couldn't wait, Wendy knew. Her kids needed their father's words right now. She drove over to the bank, got the tape out of the safe deposit box A safe deposit box (sometimes incorrectly called a safety deposit box) is a type of safe usually located in groups inside a bank vault or in the back of a bank or post office. , and drove home - waiting until late afternoon to show it because that was the right time. She called her children into her bedroom and asked them to join her up on her king-size bed king-size bed, king-sized bed king n → grand lit (de 1,95 m de large) . She had something she wanted them to see. Wendy hit the remote control play button and closed her eyes. The voice and face of Jim Bachelis came through the TV screen. He was sitting in a park, smiling and looking healthy, telling his kids, one last time, how much he loved them. Telling them that life was a precious thing not to be wasted, so don't - especially on tears. Be happy and like yourself, their father said. Be a good person and contribute to society. Get involved in charity work. Do all that and they would make their daddy very proud of them, Jim Bachelis told his kids. Half an hour later, the tape went blank, and the emotion drained out of them. Wendy hugged her kids, and they all shared one last good cry together. Then they talked about how lucky they were to have had a wonderful man like this in their lives, even if it was for too short a time. For the first time in a month, Lauren said, there were no bad dreams after falling asleep that night. Her dad wouldn't allow them. ``He said he wanted me to be a good, strong person, and that's what I was going to be,'' the 9-year-old girl said. Wendy Bachelis stood holding her 5-year-old son's hand at the finish line of the pre-Los Angeles Marathon ``Torch Run'' in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or last Sunday. It was Valentine's Day Valentine's Day: see Saint Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day Lovers' holiday celebrated on February 14, the feast day of St. Valentine, one of two 3rd-century Roman martyrs of the same name. St. . Perfect day for a kid to pay back some love and promises. In the distance they could both make out the little figure of a girl carrying a torch for the charity she was representing - Our House. It's a West Los Angeles
Nonprofits are also called not-for-profit corporations. Nonprofit corporations are created according to state law. agency where children who have lost a parent or sibling sibling /sib·ling/ (sib´ling) any of two or more offspring of the same parents; a brother or sister. sib·ling n. come to lean on each other and work through the pain. It is where Lauren came, and where she was chosen recently as the child to represent Our House in the Valentine's Day ``Torch Run.'' Lauren's arms were dead tired from holding up this torch on the mile stretch of her run, but she wasn't about to let her dad down. This one was for him. The torch remained high. ``She came across the finish line, and you could just see her adrenalin was pumping,'' Wendy said. ``She was so happy and felt so good about herself. ``She ran up to me and said, `Daddy would be proud of me, wouldn't he, Mom?' I told her he would be very proud.'' She got home Thursday from Bay Laurel Laurel, cities, United States Laurel. 1 Town (1990 pop. 19,438), Prince Georges co., central Md., about halfway between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore; patented in the late 1600s, inc. 1870. Elementary School elementary school: see school. in Calabasas, where her family now lives, and began walking through her new neighborhood knocking on doors. The L.A. Marathon is coming up next month, and she is one of 26 kids from Our House who will run a mile each to raise funds for the charity, which is one of 46 charities taking part in the marathon. Would they like to sponsor her with a donation, Lauren asked the people who answered their doors? Be a good person and contribute to society, her father said. Get involved in charity work. Do all that, and you will make your daddy very proud. Jim Bachelis has to be busting with pride right now. Anyone interested in sponsoring Lauren in the marathon can make a pledge in her name by calling Our House at (310) 475-0299. Dennis McCarthy's column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. CAPTION(S): photo PHOTO (color) Lauren Bachelis, 9, will have her brother, Brett, 5, and her mother, Wendy, cheering her on when she runs a one-mile leg of the Los Angeles Marathon The Los Angeles Marathon is an annual marathon held in Los Angeles, California since 1986. It was inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. The race starts at about 8:15AM and runs through Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, the Crenshaw district, and for charity in honor of her father, who died of cancer. Gus Ruelas/Daily News |
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