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DAVID GARCIA : An Unexpected Present

 

David Garcia was a man who could make things work, albeit in the most unusual ways. Once, he patched up a pair of run- down work boots by gluing pieces of tire to the soles. And when the floor on his future wife's Chevy Malibu rusted out, he retrieved his tin sandbox and welded it to the bottom.

But Mr. Garcia could not fix his eyesight, which began deteriorating when he was 10 years old and had, by the age of 40, left him with 20 percent of his vision.

So he found ways to compensate for the independence he lost along with his view of the world, said Deborah A. Garcia, his wife.

A computer programmer, Mr. Garcia began working on a contract basis, most recently for Marsh & McLennan. He had enough vision left that he could still go boating, his family said.

Mr. Garcia's older son, Davin, 8, had his own boat: a remote control toy that broke last summer. After Sept. 11, Mrs. Garcia discovered it in the basement. "It was all put back together," she said. "He fixed it the night before this happened."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times