Headline Surfer photo / Polaroid snapshot of Henry Frederick, holding his newborn son, Henry Michael Frederick IV, just minutes after his birth at Nyack Hospital in Nyack, NY, hours before sunrise on Oct. 16, 1993. The pic was taken by a hospital sokeswoman in the delivery room.
By HENRY FREDERICKSANFORD, Fla. -- This is the most precious, and indeed, most prized photo of mine to this day - a snapshot in time taken in the early morning hours of Oct. 16, 1993, at Nyack Hospital in Nyack, NY.
Nancy Kriz, a hospital spokeswoman took this pic on a Polaroid camera within moments of my only child's birth: Of Henry Michael Frederick IV. Look at how he's looking up to his Dad. I can't think of a more priceless image that means everything to me - a bond from birth.
I turned 31 on Feb. 4, of that year. He was "Little Henry" or "HIV" as he was called in those early days by the late Richard Gutwillig, columnist for The Rockland Journal-News, and his godfather...
Henry's birth certificate was filled out by Nancy Kriz, a dear friend, who was a spokeswoman back then with Nyack Hospital.
My time in Rockland County was short: mid-1989 to mid-1996, during which I worked as a cops & courts reporter for the above-named newspaper. Henry's mother, Sandra, worked for the Rockland County Girl Scouts.
I was on deadline just hours before my son's birth, having covered a homicide from the scene in Spring Valley. I then drove to the hospital where I wrote the story on my laptop on deadline and emailed it to the city desk for final editing and placement in the morning's paper.
Little Henry's first home was in Stony Point, the Old Shankey House on West Main Street; next door to the Stony Point Presbyterian Church where he was baptized with his first year of life...
We moved to East Central Florida when Little Henry was 3.
BTW: I still have the blanket Little Henry was wrapped in.