A LASTING LOVE — Steubenville natives Danny Abramowicz and the former Claudia DiPrinizo, shown sharing a kiss, were married 56 years before her death on Aug. 2. -- Contributed

(Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a profile of Steubenville-native Danny Abramowicz, who was the recipient of EWTN’s 2022 Mother Angelica Award. The Catholic Central High School graduate enjoyed a long career in the National Football League, most of which was spent with the New Orleans Saints, coached in the league and did commentary. His work now is centered on making sure men are in spiritual shape. In Sunday’s story, Abramowicz said he was all about “Faith, family and friends.” Today, he discusses how he helped his wife of 56 years, the former Claudia DiPrinizo, who died on Aug. 2 in her fight against cancer. On Tuesday, he talks about how following God’s game plan transformed his life.)   

A man of acronyms, Danny Abramowicz explains what SCBL stands for — Souls Can Be Lost. 

Christ said salvation is a total gift, but there’s free will, Abramowicz said, and souls are being lost. 

“I want to prevent that as much as I can. I’ve got to evangelize the people they put in front of me, right in your family. We’re afraid to say the grace. You go out to dinner, and you see these families out there all texting. They’re not even talking to one another. They’re on their phones. We’re crazy. We’re nuts out here,” the Steubenville native said of the world. 

“My grandkids would never do that. I tell them you’d better put those phones down. We’re going to have a conversation,” he said. 

“Grandparents play a major role right now because what’s happening is that the young adults aren’t practicing their faith, so are we going to stand by and let that happen?” 

Abramowicz grew up on Sycamore Street in Steubenville, went to St. Peter’s Grade School and played ball at North End field. He went on to play football at Cincinnati’s Xavier University before being drafted by the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League. 

“Where the university is up on the hill, we used to play up there,” he said, adding that he ultimately would speak at one of the first conferences held at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. 

He is four months into living minus his spouse, the former Claudia DiPrinizo of Steubenville, who died on Aug. 2, and now the prospect of his first Christmas without her. 

“It’s been very difficult on the human side, but the spiritual side, no,” he said, asking for the opportunity to explain that comment. 

“For 56 years she put up with me and was my best friend. I loved her dearly. I met her through a good friend of mine that was her cousin. I was a junior. She was a freshman. I didn’t pay much attention, but a year later, I saw her in the hallway, and I said, ‘Wait a minute, this girl grew up’. So I started dating her. I was a senior. She was a sophomore,” he said of their days at Catholic Central High School. 

“It was obvious she was a pretty girl, a beautiful girl, but even as a foolish young man at that age when I was about in my sophomore year in college, we were still dating, and I said, you know something? This woman is more beautiful inside interiorally. I can’t let this girl get away,” he reminisced. 

“We ended up getting married going into my senior year. You talk about marrying on a shoestring. My senior year of college, we moved to Cincinnati. And then I got drafted by the Saints,” he said. 

The couple moved to New Orleans, a place he said you can’t explain but have to experience. “It’s different than anywhere I’ve ever been, but we raised our kids there.” 

Abramowicz has been an evangelizer of men, an achievement that played into his selection for EWTN’s 2022 Mother Angelica Award. He credits his wife with facilitating that. 

“On the human side of grieving, it’s very difficult when you look over, and the chair’s empty — permanently. That’s difficult, especially if you’ve been close like my wife and I were,” he said. “Our family got along good together. No animosity, no nothing. We raised our kids and our grandkids on three F’s – faith, family, friends. It has to be in that order, because if you don’t have the faith, the other ones are going to be shaky,” he said. 

“Even with faith, it’s not easy in this world,” he said. 

His wife’s final months constituted the most difficult thing Abramowicz said he has ever faced. 

“It was five months of cancer and three strokes. The last one took her voice,” he said. 

He said the medical system in the United States for the elderly “really needs to be looked at very carefully because that was very disappointing, the things I had to experience. It’s one thing with the cancer and these other things, but not properly trained people and stuff like that, very difficult,” he said. 

“At first I would tell my wife, ‘OK, we’ve got to fight this thing, we’re going to do it,’ but we’re about to start chemo. On the Friday before Mother’s Day, we had a meeting with the oncologist, ready to set it up, we’re going to start that Monday. Mother’s Day morning she woke me up at six o’clock in the morning,” he said. 

She had had her first stroke. 

She was paralyzed. Chemo went out the window, he said. “The next five months we’re in and out of skilled care units, and then finally, halfway through this, I said, ‘Honey,’ I could see she was getting whipped down. You know she was losing weight. I got a lot of her women friends to start visiting her. And then I said, “Listen, let’s set a goal, and I’ll help you attain it. What do you want to do, what goal do you want?'” he recalled the conversation, apologizing for becoming emotional. 

“She says, ‘I want to go to my home, my house.’ I said, ‘OK, good, I’m going to help you,’ so off we went. She fought and had to go through all this stuff and at the end, she had the final stroke.” 

The choice between hospice in a hospital or at home was a no-brainer. 

His wife made her goal, Abramowicz said. She came home. 

Nine days later, she died. 

“I asked the Lord, begged the Lord to experience her last breath, and he allowed me that to happen,” he said. 

Abramowicz is spending his first Christmas without his wife but in the company of their daughter, Stephanie, who planned to travel from Chicago and her three sons. He is proud of his children and four grandsons, the eldest of whom is a student at Notre Dame majoring in linguistics and speaks four languages fluently. “I can’t even figure out English,” Abramowicz laughs. 

“They’re flying down, and we’re going to have Christmas. Our oldest, D.J., lives down here. Our other son Andy lives in Denver and has one son.”