FROM THE ASJ ARCHIVES – JUNE 2020 AN ODE TO ANTHONY: DAD COPES WITH SON’S HEALTH ISSUES

Now that I’m a husband and a father of two small children, I understand there is more to life than self-gratification, and I make it a point to put their needs before mine and will do everything in my power to keep my family safe.

And now that Anthony has diabetes, we are realizing that his condition makes him vulnerable to variables that would never have concerned us before he was diagnosed.

What’s hard for me to accept during this pandemic is there are things in this world that I can’t protect my family from, and now I have to rely on other people to do the right thing, or else something bad can happen. That’s why it’s disappointing to see so many good people acting responsibly and all of their efforts could be suddenly wiped out because there are a handful of selfish jerks who are willing to throw away months of hard work.

I know everyone is anxious to have life go back to normal, but trying to normalize it too early can set us back to where it all started. If you want to roll the dice with your health or possibly your life, that’s your decision. But there is more at stake. When you put someone else’s life in jeopardy – my family’s lives –I have a real problem with that.

You want to talk about what’s unfair? I should be standing knee-deep in a world-famous steelhead stream, brawling with ocean-run rainbows that just came in on the morning tide. Instead, I’m learning how to calculate and administer life-sustaining insulin doses for a 9-year-old boy.

And even with this lifelong obstacle my family just started to confront, I am fully aware that there are thousands of families worse off than mine who are suffering, and some who have lost loved ones from this pandemic. I also realize there will be more cases, more sadness and, unfortunately, more deaths. That is the real injustice, and that is why I plan on doing my part by staying put until the restrictions start to ease up.

We need to look at the big picture and do what we can in our power to help stop the spread, rather than satisfying our immediate needs. We have to keep telling ourselves this will be over –hopefully sooner than later – and that life will start to go back to normal.

Anthony Ensalaco’s 2020 diabetes diagnosis put the Covid pandemic and a lot of other issues in perspective for his father Tony, who is a regular contributor to this magazine. Anthony is doing really well these days. (TONY ENSALACO)

”Personally, I know in my heart that Anthony will be back on the pitcher’s mound “chucking bullets” or skating across the blue line “deking benders” and “lighting the lamp” in the near future. Just like the hunters will be invading the woods or storming the fields, while the fishermen will be pummeling the water from sunrise to sundown. And that I’ll get back to Alaska next spring and do battle with a chromebright steelhead. -Tony Ensalaco