A Year Later, Firefighting Wintz Family Continues to Mourn

They are a family of firefighters and I’m willing to bet if you checked their DNA, you’d find a marker of some sort indicating that.

Today, that  family, the Wintz clan, with the spirit of red that is the essence, in one form or another, of who they are from Florida to New Jersey,  right back here to  Bristol Borough will mourn and grieve the loss of the family patriarch; Fire Captain David Wintz.

A year ago today, the borough streets first rumbled and shook, followed by a cacophony of sirens screaming through the early morning’s light.

Wintz did as he had done so many other times, he responded to the call of a fireman without thought, delay, or procrastination.

He was first to arrive on scene like so many other times before.

It’s what he did and who he was, sons and firemen themselves, brothers David and Daniel Wintz said of their father.

The “standup guy” who passed on the idea of giving of oneself for a greater good is indeed the highest of principles a person can posses.

Daughter and sister Sue Wintz Griscavage, also possesses that unseen factor running through the soul of the family.

You know it’s  there.  Griscavage takes it  personally when  a person or home  somewhere in this historic old borough dares to have a crisis calling on the colors of  emergency personnel.

“It’s what my father taught all of us,” she said, in the softest of voices that make whispers sound like yelling.

Firefighting, commitment to public service, and the bond we so often hear about linking firefighter to firefighter is  the essential core, of the Winz family.

Each one who goes about the job of  racing to danger, is always reminded of lessons taught by their father.

This can only be truly understood, if you lucky enough to be  indoctrinated into what it means for this family, and unknown number like them, who respond to the call for trouble by running to it.  Not away.   This is to be a fighter of fires and savior of lives.

Words can’t do justice for the Wintz family, who not only lost a “hero” but best friend, confident, mentor, life companion and strength the entire family was modeled upon and drew from.

The loss is still palpable, fresh, and difficult to accept as each member of the family expressed on the phone last night.

The collective  thinking and feeling  as the  anniversary hour of a loss fast approaches is;   they have no  control of  the passage of time, nor  do they have a  universal pause button, so they each could say goodbye to their father in the way they feel is deserved after decades of giving one self to a “higher calling” oldest son David said.

Griscavage  is  racked with an oscillating feelings of guilt, and anger.  “Everyday is a struggle” she says.

David Jr. and Dan mourn quietly in the public eye, but among family members the sharing of  loss goes on.

Sandra Wintz Hill, the oldest of the four, says she’s going to ‘visit him,” so she can be with her “best friend,” on the memorial day of his passing.

Helen Lintz, mourns in her own private way wondering, ‘what if?’

A myriad of questions are still on her lips, yet to be answered.  Demanding  answers like the dignity and respect her husband earned through the years of service to Bristol Borough as a paid and volunteer firefighter, she says.

“My life was taken from me, because he gave his, she said, with tears in her voice.”

Her two essential questions remain for the family as a whole, with the marking of  the day Bristolians won’t soon forget.

When will there be a memorial service? When will Dow Chemical extend the least bit of sympathy and condolence towards the family and for the memory of their firefighting family leader? they ask.

It’s a question, they think not only begs an answer, but demands it, in light of the fact Wintz lost his life, while “supporting”  the chemical companies own fire fighting crew.

Each of the four children, and wife too, feel the man who respected his calling so much, has been disrespected in memory.

That should not stand. He is and was a hero and his nine grand children and one great grand child should grow to know that.

In the short time living here in the borough, you come to learn, people living here  are very proud of its historical standing.

Citing facts, dates and numbers, validating that idea.

The people and ideas making up that history are celebrated  through traditions passed on and down through generations of exceptionalism.

Captain of Station 51, David Winz, was an exceptional man in the eyes of his family, and the collective unconscious of  Bristol Borough.

His family mourns his loss, as fresh as it only occurred a nano-second ago.

The zeitgeist of a first responder can only be understood if you are a part of that circle; that spirit; that DNA  running cell deep, we’ve been told many times.

The Winz’s think its time  he’s given his due on this date. “It’s being worked on ” each says.

Until that happens, they say,  in one way or another, collectively, true healing for them can not begin.