Honoring fathers in their own way

As children across Long Island honor their fathers Sunday, Newsday spoke with three people who have found special ways to express admiration for them every day, recognizing their achievements or preserving their memories in unusual ways.

Lewis Jassey remembers his father Marvin

As a pediatrician, Lewis Jassey has helped thousands of children. As a rapper, he's written more than 200 songs.

While the combination might seem out of the ordinary, it's a passion that Jassey has nurtured for more than two decades.

"For me, I have a lot of songs that I write from the heart," says Jassey, 41, a Bellmore pediatrician who started rapping after he and a friend were prompted onstage during an open mic on spring break in Mexico in 1987.

So it made sense that Jassey, also known as Doc J, would eventually pen a song as a tribute to his father, Marvin, also a doctor, who died in 1996 after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

It took just one night for Jassey to write the lyrics to "Hey Dad." In the last verse of the song, Jassey raps:

"Life changes, the year, the date, and the season,

When my girls ask where grandpa is I have no reason,

There were things you haven't finished that you had started,

An empty void left as a legacy that has departed . . . "

Jassey released the song with longtime friend and Manhattan music engineer and producer Garth Mitchell and the ALS Association Greater New York Chapter. Mitchell provided the music for the track.

The song, available for download on iTunes and docjmusic.com, has raised more than $2,000 for the cause, says Jassey of Bellmore-Merrick Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine in Bellmore.

Jassey, who said he was moved by his father's brave, five-year battle with the disease, performs the song several times a year at local schools and camps, even bringing the eldest of his two daughters, Julia, along with him to join in.

"My father passed away and I know I can't bring him back, but through this song in some ways I can keep his memory and what he stood for alive," says Jassey.

Cheryl R. Canton remembers her father Willie Henry Riddick

For Cheryl R. Canton, honoring her father has become part of a daily routine. In fact, she's made a 39-year career out of it.

Canton is an administrator of student support services with the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center at Farmingdale State College, which provides free academic and vocational services to educationally and economically underserved adult learners.

The role is a perfect fit for Canton, who says her late father, Willie Henry Riddick, always stressed to her the importance of education and giving back.

Despite having had little formal education himself -- Canton said her father left school at an early age after his parents died -- he always wanted better for his children, she notes.

"My father probably had the equivalent of six years of education, but he always instilled that he wanted us to have an education," says Canton, 64, of Freeport, who has bachelor's and master's degrees. "He always wanted us not to just achieve for ourselves but also put it back in the community."

Canton feels likes she's accomplished this through her work helping adult learners through the EOC. She helps them with placement services and career and personal development, and also through a scholarship that bears her name and that of her father.

The Cheryl R. Canton Incentive/Willie Henry Riddick Memorial Award is presented annually at the EOC's student recognition program. The award amount varies, but is generally between $100 and $200 and can be used for educational purposes. Canton has funded it the past several years.

This year's recipient, Patrice Glenn, 36, of Uniondale, took a training program through the EOC to become a nursing assistant and enrolled in the practical nurse certificate program at Farmingdale State College.

"It's a very good way to give back," she says.

Paul Setticase and his father Philip

Growing up in Elmont, Paul Setticase remembered hearing about his parents' love letters.

They were written during a two-year courtship while his father was stationed overseas during World War II.

The remarkable part was that Setticase's father, Philip, had only met his future wife once before the letters began. He'd been introduced to her through his sister shortly before he was deployed. So theirs was a love that grew from the letters they wrote.

The first one arrived about a month after he left, in November 1943, and the writing continued until he came home in October 1945. A month later, Philip married Teresa Corsini.

"I lived for those letters," said Philip, now 90, a resident of Hertlin House in Ronkonkoma.

The allure of the letters led Setticase on a quest to find them, which he did shortly before his mother died of cancer in 2005. He found 350 of them in the basement in a box marked 'letters.'

"Growing up I just knew him as my dad," said Setticase, 43 of Bayside, Queens. "I never even realized this guy was a World War II hero."

He learned that his father misspelled his future wife's name in his first letter, a mistake not repeated once she told him it was 'Teresa,' not 'Theresa.'

Setticase also noticed that none of the letters included any from his mother to his father, and she explained that in order to travel light during the war his father had to shed the letters.

The letters revealed the harsh realities of war, like the time his father was wounded in the leg during the Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg or when he recounted a visit to a concentration camp.

"The sights here are atrocious and amazing," he wrote. "The army has set up a hospital in this camp as the need is great for the place is full of walking skeletons . . . "

Some of the letters had cheerful images, though, showing his father's playful side as he bragged to Teresa about his athletic abilities.

Moved by the letters, Setticase spent the better part of the past five years transcribing them and now is trying to publish them as a book.

"I could think of no greater tribute to my father," said Setticase, who selected the best 109 letters for possible publication.

Scenes from a love story

Sunday, October 31, 1943

"Hello Theresa

I guess you never thought that you'd be receiving a letter from me after such a short meeting. However, seeing is believing and I hope that this is the beginning of a correspondence and friendship.

I love to write letters as well as to receive them. I believe that a person's wealth in actuality is measured by the amount of friends he or she has. This is the only way I ever want to be rich. Letters also help pass some of my idle time and some letters help boost a soldiers morale. . . "

A friend,

Phil

Sunday November 7, 1943

"Dear "Tess"

"I will be granted a 7 day Christmas leave on December 17. I'll have about 2 or three days home & during that time I hope I can improve on that one hour and a half acquaintance. I'll save one night for you (that is if you'd care) and then I can show my appreciation for writing. O.K. So don't make any dates for the 19th or 20th."

Bye-now

Phil

May 23, 1945, Austria

To My sunshine or

To The C.O. of my heart

"As I was off guard this morning I decided to take in a sightseeing trip the division is sponsoring. So hon if you'll close your eyes and imagine you're with me we'll go on the trip all over again.

We have to sort of rough it as a truck is the only transportation available -- a G.I. bus. We leave about 9 o'clock and head for the lake which is surrounded by the Alps. The scenery is beautiful, trees, a majestic green, the water as clear as crystals and a snow cap for the towering mountains. We go along for about half-hour and make our first stop- a labor camp combined with a concentration camp. The sights here are atrocious and amazing. The army has set up a hospital in this camp as the need is great for the place is full of walking skeletons. I guess I'm a little bitter about the whole thing for I still keep saying to myself, "How could God allow such a thing to happen" . . . "

" . . . I don't know anything yet about our future status but I sure want to come home in a heck of a hurry so we too can have that nuptial mass wedding. Sure we'll have it darling. All I care to do anymore is to make you happy. That's the only way I'll be happy then."

So long.

Phil