Luzia
Sikorsky at first couldn’t read the flood of mail from
Florida, Colorado and elsewhere that was delivered to her
Spring Valley, N.Y., home. Eventually, she opened it. It
taught her things about Gregory R. Sikorsky, one of her four
sons. People remembered the 34-year-old New York City
firefighter for the positive-thinking man he had become -—
and the considerate boy he once was. Letters and cards came
from people he knew in high school. They told of how he
helped them, in ways he probably had long forgotten. A woman
wrote of her angst-filled adolescence and a junior high
school dance. Always the wallflower, she watched her
classmates pairing off on the floor. Sikorsky surprised her
by telling her she was pretty. He asked her to dance. The
woman said “she would never forget him. It changed her
life,” Luzia recalled. Similar anecdotes filled letter after
letter. “He helped out a lot of people, which I didn’t
really know until now,” Luzia said. Sikorsky, a 17-year
volunteer firefighter with the Hillcrest Fire Co., craved
adventure and didn’t require the security of terra firma.
The licensed pilot took his youngest brother, Perry, on a
flight to explore the skies. He enjoyed skydiving. As a
scuba diver, he plumbed deep sea mysteries. The adventurer
with a gentle side helped people in the past. He still does.
His acts of kindness, memorialized on paper, comfort Luzia,
wife Marie, 3-year-old son Steven and other family members.
Said Luzia, “It helps you, that he was such a good person
and so many people loved and cared about him.”
