FRIENDS, FAMILY GOLF TO REMEMBER TIM GOLDRICK JR.
Daily News of Los Angeles (CA) - Sunday, August 18, 2002
Author: Amy Raisin Staff Writer
VALENCIA - Nearly four years after Tim Goldrick Jr. died of cancer at 35, his family and friends - about 110 of them - hit the links Saturday for the annual golf tournament played in honor of the husband and father.
When Goldrick was diagnosed with stage-4, terminal colon cancer in 1998, those who loved him organized a golf benefit to help send him to Germany and Mexico for some last-hope alternative medical treatments. ``My son said to (my husband), 'If I don't make it through this, please do this tournament every year in my name,''' said Rowena Wolkiewicz, Goldrick 's mother.
Goldrick died on Dec. 28, 1998, leaving behind a wife, Leigh, and two young daughters - Sydney, 12, and 9-year-old Devon - who live in Stevenson Ranch. Since then, Vista Valencia Golf Course has been the site of four memorial tournaments bearing Goldrick 's name. Wolkiewicz, who, with her husband, Tom, helps organize the event from their Arizona home, said the tournaments have raised between $1,000 to $2,000 each year, which has gone to organizations like Make-A-Wish and, last year, to the fund to help the widows and children of firefighters killed or injured in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Wolkiewicz split with her son's father, Tim Goldrick Sr., when the boy was 4, but the couple have always maintained a close relationship. The elder Goldrick praised the Wolkiewicz's dedication to honoring their son and those who continue to stand by his memory years after his death.
``I can't explain to you how we feel when we get a turnout of this nature,'' said Goldrick , a Valencia resident. ``We have these memorial tournaments to try and acknowledge the people - friends, old high school buddies, friends from work - who helped us with that first benefit tournament.'' Goldrick 's family and friends planted a tree near the third hole at Vista Valencia in 1999 and have watched it grow every year. Tom Wolkiewicz took his stepson's daughters to that living memorial recently, which also boasts a plaque bearing their father's name. ``It's nice that the kids have some place to go and remember him,'' Rowena Wolkiewicz said. ``The little one was only 4 when he died. She's having trouble remembering him. We had 110 people here today who remember him.''
Tim was cool and kind, a couple years older than me but always working on his swing at the football field in the morning. Louise Bialik, 1983
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