Unfortunately, the Bosco family will have to remember, instead of experience, the life of Richard Bosco. Every year on his birthday in January, the family meets at Mt. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse to celebrate his life. On September 11, the family takes the day off work and visits the 9/11 Memorial in Rockland County and heads to breakfast afterward.
When Bosco went to college at Penn, she kept the traditions alive as best she could. She and five of her Quakers teammates went for Hibachi every year on her father’s birthday. On September 11, she and Laura Murphy walked to College Hall to help plant flags in remembrance of those who lost their lives on that day.
“It was definitely hard being away from home, and there were times where I just wanted to be left alone,” she said. “My team was so supportive. I’d come home and there would be a card on my bed. They always wanted to make sure that I was OK.”
There are, however, plenty of ways that Rich Bosco lives on that his daughter cannot control. She said she has little time to watch television because she physically can’t sit still, always needing to stay active. She starred in three sports (basketball and soccer included) at Suffern before deciding on lacrosse for college.
Over four years later, Bosco is an All-Ivy honoree (2019) who makes her impact all over the field, lining up at the draw and tallying plenty of draw controls and caused turnovers.
“[Her father] is where she got her energy and endurance from, 100 percent,” Bosco-Myhal said.
Whether through stories or embedded in her personality, Bosco will keep her father’s memory close for as long as she lives. The same goes for the rest of the Bosco family and anyone whose lives were touched by Rich Bosco.
Bosco-Myhal has kept the glass bowl in storage for the better part of the past decade, hoping that one day she’ll gift it to her daughter.
“It’s one of those things that you just don’t want to break or anything because it had such sentimental value,” she said. “I was nervous to ever use it. I don’t want to be the one to break it.”
That responsibility will soon fall on Abby Bosco, who has one more year left of college lacrosse before starting the rest of her adult life. She’ll continue to remember her father in a variety of ways — and whether or not she breaks the bowl, she’s the living embodiment of the words emblazoned on it, just like her father.
Live Well. Love Much. Laugh Often.