Billy Boyle

https://www.obrienfuneralhome.com/memorials/william-boyle/5065953/index.php

One day you’re here, the next, you’re gone.

I’m grief-stricken, numb with alternating currents of nervous anxiety and loss. My brother died a few days ago, and the shockwave continues for all of us.

The darkness of November comes, with midterm elections, a lunar eclipse, and a full moon all leading up to Billy’s 62 birthday, November 12.

When Billy was born, I was five.

I remember it was cold November day when my mom came home from the hospital , suddenly skinny, and slumped in a chair. Billy was in a small white crib in the dining room, asleep.

I stared at him for a long time. He was perfect, beautiful, even, with wisps of black hair and a serene look. Of course, I wanted him to ‘wake up,’ and waited patiently for my slumbersome baby brother to come to life, but he slept alot. I lost interest, and then one day he was a toddler in a sailor uniform and adorably cute. Everybody loved him.

One day he was a toddler in a sailor uniform and adorably cute. Everybody loved him

Everybody

My Mom, ” Frankie ” Rose (Gallagher) Boyle, is 39 in 1960 which is considered old for childbirth My family consisted of now Four children, two parents, and an extended family of Irish Catholics that numbered in the millions.

My mom and dad were the youngest of their families, and Billy and I were the youngest of our family, so that meant there many Adults towering over us and they had children, so the second and third cousin reign was in effect at this time. People would show up at our house at 509 East Lincoln Ave and I would sit there and wonder which long gone, lost relative this was. We had the army, navy, and marines, represented in their rank, and there was a huge number of Firemen, and Fire Ladies, wives of the Firemen, of which my Dad, Matty, was one.

The older married cousins who were still childless started dropping by and taking Billy to the zoo or to somewhere, and he became a sort of foster child that we rented out. My cousin PJ would bring him toys and he had GI JOE and a battery operated battleship that was three feet long.

OK put that away.

Our living room at Lincoln Beach was Grand Central Station most weekends, and in-between there was the teenagers, Maryann, and Jimmy, who were in high school. Maryann was 13 or 14 when Billy was born. She was the Prom Queen – I was the Dairy Queen, and I called Jimmy and Maryann my evil teenage parents.

They were not the boss of me.

Get outta my room

It’s my room, too.

Jimmy and I had a fierce sibling rivalry because he always ate everything until there was nothing left.

If I didn’t beat him to the kitchen, the cookies would be long gone.

Billy was a Fireman who played with Firewater.

He was also an attorney. He got a job at AIG, the mega insurance conglomerate, and was there for many years, traveling the world to defend somebody’s interest somewhere. AIG represented cities, states, global companies, and though not quite Lloyds of London, they were not going out of business anytime soon.

2008

All this air travel took its toll on Billy and he, like most baby boomers, tried to bea tthe laws of physics. Especially the ones of it’s about time -it’s about space. For kids born in the 60s, the space age was real and we hopped on that matrix, as fast you can say Roger Ramjet.

A fireman and a lawyer and a father of three.

• Fire Academy Instructor Ocean County (NJ) Fire Academy Ocean County (NJ) Fire Academy
• Assistant Engineer, Lieutenant, Captain, Assistant Chief & Chief Assistant Engineer, Lieutenant, Bay Head NJ
  • 15-year veteran firefighter, Assistant Engineer, Lieutenant, Captain, Assistant Chief & Chief of combined engine & rescue company. Author of two (2) successful federal (Fire Act) grants for the purchase of new self-contained breathing apparatus and radios. Also served as the department’s training officer & secretary.15-year veteran firefighter, Assistant Engineer, Lieutenant, Captain, Assistant Chief & Chief of combined engine & rescue company. Author of two (2) successful federal (Fire Act) grants for the purchase of new self-contained breathing apparatus and radios. Also served as the department’s training officer & secretary
    
• Engineer & Lieutenant Roselle Park Fire Department Roselle Park NJ
  • 16-year veteran firefighter, Engineer & Lieutenant in busy combined engine & rescue company. Also served as company President, Vice President, Secretary & Trustee.

I used to be a fireman…

Hughie Tumulty and Billy Boyle at Lincoln Beach, Roselle Park, NJ, circa 1970s

https://www.linkedin.com/in/williammboyle/

He was beloved but in the crosshairs most of his life. He was, as his daughter Tori, said, an ‘antihero.’ To his son, Matthew, pictured below, now a Navy Sailor, he was a hero, and to his youngest daughter, Kerry, an enigma, shrouded in darkness.

Matthew Boyle, San Diego, circa early 2000s.