In Memory of Theodore J. Gaida, Jr.
Theodore Joseph Gaida, Jr, age 86, of Cambridge passed away January 7, 2009 at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, January 10th at Christ the King Catholic Church with Father James David Hahn as Celebrant. Visitation will be held 1 hour prior to the funeral at the church. Interment will be in the church cemetery.
Theodore J. Gaida, Jr, age 86, of Cambridge and formerly of Clifton, New Jersey passed away January 7, 2009 in the arms of his family at Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul.
Ted was born April 5, 1922 in Paterson, New Jersey to Theodore and Anna Gaida. He served his country in the US Navy during WWII. Ted worked with the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad for 20 years. He then worked at Hoffman-LaRoche Pharmaceuticals until retirement. He lived and died by his mantra, “One trip around – live life today, there may be no tomorrow”.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Theodore and Anna (Kostik) Gaida; wife, Mabel; son, Theodore; and sisters, Jean Ralick and Rose Shafran. Ted is survived by his son, Bruce (Joyce) Walasek of Blaine, Washington; daughter, Michele Gaida (Robert Mattson) of Blaine, Minnesota; five grandchildren, Wendy Walasek, Tamara Mineo, Melissa Mattson, Tracy Gaida and David Gaida; three great-grandchildren, Joseph and Dominick Mineo, and Arek Zenel-Walasek.
Grandpa often lectured us that there was only “one trip around.” He would tell his story starting with how he was already dead once in the pacific during WWII, that he was going to do as he pleased and we should, too. He would repeat “one trip around”, as he pounded on the table for effect and then he would draw a circle on the table, symbolic of the one trip.
His trip has really ended this time, unlike that time in the Pacific. But his memory will continue in those that new him.
I know that when I have taken risks with my money or my life, I found strength in his advice, that there is only one trip around. With “one trip around” repeating in my head, I went off and bought a 34’ racing sail boat that is really too expensive. Each week, I push myself and my 7 person crew to found out how good we can be on the starting line, maneuvering the 4 ton sailboat to find a preferable spot against the competition, or as the 40 knot storm cells have swept in or while we continue to perfect our team work rounding marks. We all know that there is only one trip around and we are so glad to have the opportunity to find out what we are made of on East Chester Bay of Long Island Sound as the sun sets over the skyline of New York City.
I am a better person for having had Ted Gaida as my grandpa. I will share with you some of his advice; there is only one trip around. Go live your trip to the fullest. I know I am. Well, that is until I, too, am “under the sod“ (another one of his expressions).
Jim and I offer our condolences to Shelley, Bob, Melissa, and to extended family and friends who knew and loved Ted.
Many of my earliest memories of the old neighborhood in Clifton, NJ, include all the members of the Gaida-Walasek family and their boxer, Lady. Their house was my second home, especially if I didn’t like what my own mother was fixing for supper! Mae and Ted never turned me away; they treated me as if I were one of their family by inviting me to stay for dinner, to spend the night, go with them for a weekend to Aunt Jean’s at the shore, and to Wisconsin for a week in the summer.
I’ll always think of Mae as a true “explorer” and Ted as the guy who got her where she needed to go. Years later, after I was married, they took a cross-country trip and visited us in Washington state. After seeing us they headed south through Oregon and stopped at the Columbia River Maritime Museum where they met a guy who also grew up in Clifton. Mae gave me his name and number and told me to look him up if I ever got to Astoria. We did, I did, and we later became friends … thanks to Mae and Ted!
My faith tells me that Ted is happy to be with Mae again and that they are at peace and will rest in loving hands.
There are many memories I have about my grandfather, some good, some not so good but most of them definitely funny. I miss the days of sitting around the kitchen table in Clifton listening to stories about my father’s antics growing up and getting him beers while he was sitting in the living room and always sneaking a sip on the way. I’ll never forget when I first turned 17 and went there with my friend and him offering us shots of Southern Comfort from the basement…god only knows how old that bottle was. I reminded him that I wasn’t of legal age and he told me that the drinking age was a just a suggestion. When I got my first tattoo he told me the story about how he was in the Navy in line to get one but he got out of line to go do something else (which will remain between me & him) and got something else instead. All the lectures about smoking but he let me smoke in the house. Half the time he’d forget my name and call me Shelley. Only to find out years later when I ran into a childhood friend of my fathers that I reminded him of my aunt as well. It was kind of strange to walk into a bar when you’re 24 and have someone know right off the bat that you’re Teddy’s daughter when he hasn’t see you in 22 years. He would yell at Grandma about the stupidest things but you could tell he loved her all the same. He was the one that started paying for my college education…I was just too young & stupid to complete it. I wish he & Grandma could see me now that I finally am completing it. I know he wished I would’ve gone to Notre Dame. That was all I heard about from the time I was little was that I was gonna go to college at Notre Dame…I never did find out why he was so hooked on that school.
He was all I had left of my father. And in the passing years I had not had any contact with him. This is one thing I will always regret. I mailed him cards for every occassion but never heard back. I will always feel like the one that failed. But I took my own path and I know that he wouldn’t hold it against me. I know I wasn’t as close to him recently as my other relatives were but all of my childhood memories involved him. He was then and always will be my Grandpa Turkey.