Rowdy’s Memorial

The Sinking of the Relentless (New Janet Ann II)

            50 years ago I first met Joe Pennisi as he came upstairs to the General Fish Corporation’s offices to pick up his check for the week’s catch that he had unloaded to my father.  I remember him well as he always addressed my father as “Mr. Flanagan”.  After he would leave, my father would always comment that there goes a real gentleman.  I was about 8 in those days, and never forgot.

            50 years later, his son, Rowdy, was sending me a check each month to buy the fishing vessel “Relentless", and still always called me “Mr. Flanagan”.  A small courtesy, but what a big  legacy!  Just one small word, Mr., yet it commands us all to have deep respect and admiration for two gentlemen in what is normally a very cruel, brash and brutal occupation of commercial fishing.  In an occupation where I have been called every horrible epithet in the book, it was refreshing and uplifting once in a while to be called “Mr.”  That one word made much of the anguish in this industry to be acceptable and worthwhile.  Joe has always been a gentleman and his son followed in his model as another gentleman.

            Years ago, I came very close to losing my oldest daughter to a life threatening disease.  At times, I thought that losing her was one of the cruelest and hardest event for any parent to bear.  In the end, the only action I could take was prayer and through miracles she is still alive today helping others to stay alive as a nurse.  The Pennisi families have not been so blessed but they have always prayed for help and stongly believed in the will of God through no matter what adversity they faced.  Rowdy and I talked often of dealing with the everyday problems in fishing, and, in the end, we always talked about the need for prayer as part of that solution.

            So, it is not surprising that I feel anger today as if I had lost my own son.  Over the years, I have lost many friends, but never have I felt so much anger as today.  An anger mixed with deep sorrow, tears and a questioning as to what kind of God we were all praying to.  This man was a good father, a good husband and one of the best fisherman I have ever known.  Over the years, I have lost a lot of friends; it is part of commercial fishing.  I still remember Jack Jr., Jim Koskela, many others, about 1 or 2 a year, and now Rowdy.  All good men, safety conscious, professionals in their field.  But now why Mr. Rowdy?  Mr. Pennissi?  Oh, there is so much anger in my heart.  Mixed with the deep love I had for this man and his family.

            I told a friend last week of my anger, and she retorted, “How would this man have chosen his passing if he could?  How would he have liked to have died?  Would he have chosen to die in an automobile accident, or, perhaps, die of some kind of cancer?”  I thought hard and then had to reply, “He would have died first of all to protect his family, and then, his second choice would have been to die in trying to save his ship and men.”  Rowdy loved his family first, and then his ship.  That is the way that he would choose, to give his life for the people that he loved.  In his way, he died as one of the Last Samarai, with dignity, with values and with respect.  When I think of that, some of the anger softens.  God works in strange ways and now we must all pray to ask God to explain to us all why this has happened.  Ask God to help remove this anger in our hearts and to replace it with more love.  To ask God to help us turn this tragic event into the strength to go on, continuing to pray for love to enter our hearts and replace the anger and deeply felt hurt.  Rowdy would have wished that.

            We will always carry memories of Mr. Pennisi in our minds and pray that we will always carry love in our hearts for a man who died as he would have wished, and a man who was always a gentleman that we all loved very deeply and one who has taught us so much.  Mr. Pennisi, now you go with Jesus, another fisherman, to catch the souls of all of us left behind.  Rowdy will always be a fisherman both in this life and the next.