Five Years to Live Read online

  Copyright © 2012 Frank Zaccari

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1478196904

  ISBN 13 9781478196907

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-62345-248-3

  Dedicated to our Brother Steven Zaccari

  Felt frustration and despair and

  found maturity and self-reliance.

  Knew fear and uncertainty and

  gained courage and understanding.

  Fought sickness and misfortune

  and kept faith and hope.

  Endured pain and a life-altering accident

  and inspired so many other lives.

  Other Books by Frank Zaccari

  When the Wife Cheats

  From the Ashes: The Rise of the University of Washington Volleyball Program

  Inside the Spaghetti Bowl

  Contents

  Five Years to Live Dedication

  Chapter 1 – Life is Good

  Chapter 2 – The Journey Begins

  Chapter 3 – The Next Step

  Chapter 4 – What a Ride!

  Chapter 5 – This can’t be happening

  Chapter 6 – Now What?

  Chapter 7 – The waiting is the hardest part

  Chapter 8 – The New Journey Begins

  Chapter 9 – The Good, the bad and the ugly

  Chapter 10 – Never underestimate the human spirit

  Chapter 11 – Ready or Not

  Chapter 12 – Another Detour

  Chapter 13 – I release you

  Chapter 14 – Don’t look behind you...You aren’t going that way

  Chapter 15 – Life goes on

  Chapter 15 – Destiny steps in

  Chapter 17 – Is this a sign God?

  Chapter 18 – Starting over

  Chapter 19 – Witch doctor?

  Chapter 20 – It keeps you running

  Chapter 21 – Sometimes the circumstances win

  Chapter 22 – The best is yet to come

  Chapter 23 – It Is What It Is

  Chapter 1

  Life is Good

  Wow, my life is finally moving the way I pictured it growing up, thought Michael Battaglia as he lay in bed next to the sleeping woman he planned to marry. At age twenty-four, he had a job he loved and an offer on the table from another company that included a promotion and a large pay raise. He had met and fallen in love with Donna Harris and was looking forward to what he was sure would be a long and very happy life together. Today, August 10, 1985, was wonderful and the future looked bright and positive. “Yeah, life is good,” Michael said again as he put his arm around Donna and went to sleep.

  Michael Battaglia is the youngest of five children from a very large New York-based Italian family. Both sets of grandparents had left Italy and Sicily in the late 1890s and settled in the small community of Dunkirk, New York, a steel town about forty minutes from Buffalo. His parents, Anthony and Carm, were first- generation Americans. They worked hard, put their faith and trust in God, and did whatever they could to provide for their five children. The Battaglia family lived in the Italian section of town about two blocks from Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Twenty-two first cousins all lived within two blocks of each other.

  With five children born within eight years, the family faced many difficult financial times, but Anthony and Carm made sure their children received a first-class education. They both believed there were three keys to a successful life: an unwavering faith and trust in God; the love and support of family; and education. They were determined to send all their children to highly academic Catholic schools through high school. Carm ironed the altar linens at the church for years in return for tuition. She was a fixture at every school event and fundraiser. Anthony worked bingo every week for as long as anyone could remember to help offset tuition costs. College was never a question. The comment the children heard the most from Carm was, “You will graduate from college if it kills us both.” Everyone laughed, but they all knew she was serious. All five children graduated from college with honors. They have eleven degrees between them, including a PhD.

  Anthony and Carm instilled a very strong work ethic in their children. At the age of twelve, Tony, the eldest, had a paper route with the Dunkirk Evening Observer. This paper route stayed in the family for twelve years. Tony passed it to Joe, the middle child, who in turn passed it to Michael. Everyone in the family knew how to fold and deliver the paper. From age four Michael would go with his brothers to deliver the paper and collect payment. His sisters also started working very early. Anne, the second eldest, worked in the kitchen at Brooks Memorial Hospital, and Mary, the fourth child, had a clerical job working for the school district nurse all through high school.

  From a very early age, it was apparent that Michael was special. He had classic Roman features: a chiseled face; dark, wavy hair; muscular arms, chest, and shoulders. He had that indefinable “it” quality. As the youngest child, Michael was always listening and learning. He watched how Tony blazed the trail of what Mom and Dad would and would not tolerate. Michael quickly learned how to avoid confrontations at home: don’t do what Tony did. In addition to his power of observation, Michael was the most gifted intellectually and had a charisma that drew people to him. He displayed these gifts at a very early age.

  The family paper route included a neighborhood bar. When Tony first started delivering the paper, the owner of the bar—a kind-looking, grandfatherly gentleman except for his one sinister eye and his nicotine-stained fingers—asked Tony to hand him the paper. In return the owner would buy Tony a Coke. After a few months, the owner asked Tony if he delivered a paper to a man who lived on the next block. When Tony said yes, the owner said, “I have to bring him an envelope, but the bar is so busy that I can’t get away. Would you be so kind to put the envelope in the paper and put it inside his screen door?”

  Tony said, “Sure, no problem.” So several days a week, the bar owner would give Tony an envelope and buy him a Coke. On Friday when Tony came to collect payment, the owner would give him a one-dollar tip. The paper back then was forty-two cents a week, so a dollar tip was a big deal. Tony passed this information on to Joe, who continued the ritual. Joe then passed it on to Michael, who had been observing this ritual since he was four years old.

  When Michael walked into the bar carrying the newspaper bag, the bar owner said to him, “Hey, so now the ‘little one’ has the paper route.”

  Michael said, “Yep, it’s been passed down to me.”

  The bar owner bought him a Coke and said, “Can you do me a favor like your brothers did from time to time and drop off an envelope for me?”

  Michael said, “Sure, but if you want me to run your numbers, it is going to cost ten dollars a week, not one. My brother Tony wasn’t smart enough to know what was going on, and Joe is just a nice guy. So it’s ten dollars a week or you can walk down the street yourself. ”

  The bar owner laughed and said, “I always heard you were the smartest one in the family.”

  Michael continued to excel through high school. He was a class officer in junior high and every year in high school. He was the poster boy for a young man on his way to great success. Michael was named student of the week by the Dunkirk Evening Observer multiple times and was elected lieutenant governor of the New York State Key Club (a youth version of the Kiwanis). When the bishop of Buffalo decided to close Cardinal Mindszenty High School during his senior year, Michael and his cousin Sam led a student protest that eventually involved the entire community, including the local radio and TV stations. This wasn’t the typical teenage protest—students marching, yelling, camping out, and disrupting things; this protest was very well-planned and organized. There were posters and presentations prepared on “flip charts,” proclaiming the virtues
of keeping the only Catholic high school in the county open. Every Catholic church and grade school in the county was approached, and signatures were collected in support of keeping the school open. When the bishop’s limo pulled into the local hotel, there were nearly two hundred people waiting. As the bishop exited his car, he heard Michael on a loudspeaker saying, “Bishop Harold, we come here in peace to protest your decision to close Cardinal Mindszenty. We are members of every Catholic church in this county, and we implore you to listen to our position. Closing Cardinal Mindszenty will do irreparable harm to the development of several generations of Catholic students. You will eliminate the options of parents and students to continue to grow in our faith and education. It is our hope and belief that you will meet with us and listen, truly listen to what we have to say.” It was Bishop Edward Harold’s worst nightmare.

  The bishop did listen, but to no avail. Michael’s protest did succeed in keeping the school open through the end of his senior year, and Michael’s drive, passion, and eloquent speeches did not go unnoticed. County supervisors and both political party leaders openly commented, “Keep your eye on that boy. We will all be working for him someday.”

  There are three excellent private colleges in western New York: St. Bonaventure in Olean, Niagara University in Niagara Falls, and Canisius in Buffalo. The vast majority of high school seniors hoped to be accepted by one of these schools. Canisius College was by far the school everyone wanted to attend. Canisius’ tag line is “Where leaders are made.” The college was founded in 1870 and is one of twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities in the nation. It’s also the premier private university in western New York. Canisius is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best comprehensive universities in the North region.

  In addition to its excellent academic reputation, Canisius has an army of alumni in very influential positions in the Buffalo area. If you wanted to become someone in Buffalo, you went to Canisius. To no one’s surprise, Michael Battaglia was accepted to attend Canisius with a number of scholarships and grants.

  Donna Harris grew up in Delhi, New York, a very small town in central New York State. The closest real city is Syracuse. As the old joke goes, Delhi is not the end of the world, but you can see it from there. Donna was the second of three sisters. Her family was made up of dairy farmers, a very hard business given the cold and harsh central New York winters. Despite the weather, her family made a pretty good living and was deeply ensconced in the area .

  Donna was your basic small-town girl. She worked hard, attended the local Episcopal church, and was a popular leader in school. She was a member of the National Honor Society, a cheerleader, class officer, and she always had a key role in the high school musical. Every schoolboy in the area had a crush on Donna. Her reddish-auburn hair, green eyes, and light freckles above her cheeks had the boys, as her mother described it, lined up around the block. Donna loved her life. If she followed her script, she would attend Binghamton State University in Binghamton, New York, not far from Delhi, become a social worker, marry one of the local boys, and raise her family in central New York.

  Chapter 2

  The Journey Begins

  Dunkirk is a small city that has seen more than its share of hard times. Despite all the financial hardships, the people of Dunkirk have great pride in their community. They celebrate when one of their own “makes it.” Most people in the city came to know Michael by following his exploits in the newspaper. People on the street, business owners, and community leaders frequently talked about the Battaglia boy who stood toe-to-toe with the bishop and was on his way to Canisius. There were people Michael didn’t even know who would stop him on the street and wish him all the best. What drew people to Michael was his love of western New York. Many people saw Buffalo and western New York as a financially depressed area, a smudge on the Lake Erie shore line, a bourgeoisie bowling capital. Michael saw loyal, noble, gallant Don Quixote-types driving around in Ford pickup trucks looking for a place to shine—searching for a peak to stand upon so that they could reach the unreachable. He believed in western New York and planned to become a business or political leader who would help change the fortunes of this area. Michael often said to family and friends, “Canisius is the first step. I don’t know what the plan is going to be after Canisius, but we are going to make great things happen in western New York. ”

  Like any elite university, every entering freshman class at Canisius College contained the brightest and most motivated students in the Northeast. They soon found out that before they can change the world, they have to survive freshman year. Freshman year at Canisius has been compared to military boot camp or Army Ranger training. Everyone is pushed to his or her limits and not everyone survives. Those who do survive become part of the Canisius family. Michael had his moments of doubt that first year, but he survived. His professors quickly noted that he often took on the leadership position when faced with a challenging project. One of his social science professors asked Michael to lead a program to aid handicapped students. The school was looking to expand its role in accommodating handicapped students. This included identifying and addressing physical barriers that prevented wheelchair accessibility as well as helping handicapped students assimilate into the Canisius way of life. The cold, harsh Buffalo winters made it difficult for able-bodied people to travel from point A to point B, so it was particularly hard, if not impossible, to maneuver through the cold and snow with a physical disability.

  When Michael discussed this opportunity with his friends, one asked, “Why would you want to do that? I mean, I feel for the disabled people, but that is a lot of extra work.”

  Another said, “I do what I can, like opening and holding doors and carrying books and stuff, but it sounds like they are asking you to develop a program for the school. It is hard enough to get through Canisius without doing the administration’s job too.”

  Michael listened to all the comments and finally said, “When I was in eighth grade, I was at my brother Joe’s track meet. I was running to the triple jump pit and my leg just gave out. I couldn’t walk or even stand. At the hospital I learned that my femur had a hole in the bone and the bone snapped. I was in a body cast for over two months. My family and friends had to carry me in and out of bed. I needed help doing everything. I couldn’t even shit without help. My family and friends were there for me. They helped me through a very difficult time. We all came to Canisius because we want to be leaders; we want to make a difference. The way I see it is if we are going to make a difference, we have to start by helping those that need help. So I am going to accept this challenge, and you guys are all going to help me. We are going to start by talking to everyone in a wheelchair, on crutches, uses a walker, or who has trouble moving around this campus. We are going to understand their challenges and we are going to make a difference.” As always, when Michael spoke, people listened.

  Michael jumped into this project with both feet. He and his friends interviewed disabled students. They borrowed a wheelchair and tried to move from place to place around campus. The college had already built an underground tunnel system to connect all the buildings on the main campus, so they all learned how difficult it was to traverse the campus in a wheelchair. They learned about the social isolation faced by most disabled students and their intense desire to be as independent as possible. Michael didn’t limit his research to physically disabled students; he also met with students with vision, hearing, and speech challenges.

  He made notes and drew diagrams of the least accessible areas on campus and then made a map showing ways to maneuver around these areas. He enlisted the help of his professor to present the project to the school administration. He designed an outline for materials that could be sent to disabled students and their families listing all the services available and phone numbers of the departments that could provide assistance to them. They raised awareness throughout the campus with a campaign, “Disabled Is Not Unabled.”

  The sch
ool took an aggressive position to make the campus as accessible as possible, and Michael earned the reputation of “someone who gets things done.” He stayed involved with the disabled student program throughout his time at Canisius and often led both formal and impromptu meetings and discussions with students, parents, and school officials. He was soon referred to as “The Mayor.”

  In 1983 as graduation approached, Michael was eager to finish his finance degree and join the Buffalo business world. However, the economic conditions in western New York continued to deteriorate. The decline in the steel and auto industries caused a disastrous ripple effect throughout the region. While every company was impressed with his resume, reputation, and accomplishments, there were no jobs for the current group of college graduates. The job search in the Buffalo area was both frustrating and depressing. So he expanded his search to central New York and Pennsylvania.

  Before the end of the summer, Michael had secured a position with a Northeastern-based department store chain named Aces. Aces had designs on becoming what Wal-Mart has now become. Michael accepted a position in the strategic management department as a troubleshooter. Many of the Aces stores were under-performing. Management believed it had more to do with design, layout, and type of merchandise in their stores rather than a poor location. Michael’s role was to spend six to eight weeks at a location, review what products were moving, and assess the area’s demographics and style. The next step was to oversee the physical remodeling of the store, change local management if needed, hire new staff, and order merchandise. Once a store was completed, Michael would return to his base location for a week or two and prepare for the next assignment.

  Michael was aware of Aces because one of their stores was in Dunkirk near the entrance to the New York State Thruway. The Aces model was strategic managers would be assigned to a “home store,” which would become their base of operations. From their home store they would receive and develop the plans for the next assignment. Although Michael requested his home store be the one in Dunkirk, there was a greater need in Delhi, New York. So Michael Battaglia, the self-professed supporter of all things in western New York, would begin his professional career in rural central New York.