Making the Best of the "Most Shocking Day of His Life"

The November issue of Vermont’s Northland Journal will include an article about a Derby couple – Tony and Gigi O’Connor.

Looking back in time, Tony calls February 11, 1967, the most “shocking day” of his life. That was the day he climbed atop a rail car while growing up in Brooklyn, New York, to get to a better vantage point to clobber a friend with a snowball. Winding up, Tony didn’t see the power line over his head. This began Tony’s life as a triple amputee (losing both legs and his right arm), a very inspirational life at that.

Instead of wallowing in sorrow, Tony, who walks on prosthesis so well casual observers probably don’t even know he is missing his legs, went on lead a rich and full-fulling life, including marrying Gigi – an equally inspiring person in 1976. When I told Tony and Gigi I wanted to write a piece about the two of them, Tony insisted that I not make him sound like anybody special, because he said Gigi is the special one, and he wouldn’t be anything without her.

A retiree of the U.S. Immigration Service, Tony is also an accomplished golfer, which includes three-and-a-half hole in ones (I’ll explain the half of a hole in one in the article). In addition, he is an accomplished racquetball player. In his retirement, he has a comedy routine sometimes called - “Stand up Comedy Without a Leg to Stand On” . While touring Florida during the winter months, he tells people that in an earlier chapter of his life, he was an alligator wrestler, thus the loss of limbs.

The upcoming article will spotlight both of these inspiring people (Tony insists Gigi is the inspiring one, and he is just an average guy).