CNJ+ October 2023

A VERY SPECIAL HALLOWEEN By Richard Mabey Jr.

The Halloween of 2005 was a most special Halloween. For it opened the door to show me one more ex ample of the immense compassion that resided within the chambers of my late father’s heart. It was in October of 2005, that Dad was in and out of the hospi tal. He was fighting cancer. Sadly, Dad had to have his right kidney removed, because it was all so filled with cancer. And now, he was faced with the possibility of having part of his large intestine taken out, be cause now he was battling colon cancer.

With both hands on the handle of the little carriage, Dad looked me square in the eye and simply said, “come on Richie. I want to check out the toy aisle.” As we began walking into the toy aisle, Dad first looked at the little cars that they had on a pegboard display. To my amazement, Dad put about 20 of the little cars into his shopping cart. With no explanation to me, Dad continued to fill his car riage with coloring books and cray ons, little boxes of jigsaw puzzles, children’s story books, and a sundry of other children’s toys. When we reached the line for the register, there were three or four customers ahead of us. “Richie, I thought I’d buy these toys for the neighborhood kids for Halloween.” When the cashier hit the total

It was about a week before Hal loween that Dad asked me to drive him to the nearby dollar store. When we arrived at the dollar store, Dad grabbed one of the little car riages that they had all lined up in a neat row, as one would enter the store. It was very apparent that Dad was on a mission.

My late parents, Richard and Janet Mabey. This photo was taken just a few years before Dad passed away.

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28 CNJ+ | FORMERLY THE MILLSTONE TIMES

OCTOBER 2023