Family mourns, remembers hero Bronx Marine lost in Afghanistan

BY PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
The family gathered Tuesday, as it often does, in the small, cozy living room of a Bronx apartment: Alberto Francesconi's parents, his brothers, aunts, mother-in-law and his pretty, young wife. Francesconi was not there except in photos covering the wall - as a stern Marine lance corporal, a curly-haired baby, a little boy in a white graduation cap, a teen with his two big brothers, a handsome groom, a youth in denim cutoffs at Orchard Beach. A life of family traditions, hard work and achievement was in those photographs; a life that ended when Francesconi was blown up in Afghanistan on New Year's Day, the nation's first casualty there in 2009.
His father, Alberto Sr., was pale and could barely speak. He was supposed to have heart surgery this Friday.
Instead, he will bury his son.
"I wish I'd die," he said, tears welling in his eyes. "He was my baby. He was 21."
Francesconi grew up in a tough area of the Bronx, but always dreamed of more - of making a better life for his family and his wife of two years, Cynthia. "We were looking into starting a family, owning our own business after he came back," the new widow said. "He always wanted to do better."
"Everything he did, he excelled at," cousin William Nolasco said.
"We grew up together at 187thSt. and Park Ave. It was nothing but drugs and crime."
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Gift ready for shipment when tragic news of Marine's death was delivered