President Bush made it a very special Thanksgiving for a Brooklyn family yesterday when he called their sailor son on his ship in the Persian Gulf near Iraq – and then he got to call home and share the holiday thrill.
“That was good, that adds the dessert to it – that makes it really special,” said Larry Render, 54, a post office supervisor, after talking to his son, Navy Fireman Reginald Render, who’s stationed in Bahrain on the USS Dextrous, an anti-mine ship.
It was one of 10 thank-you calls from Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, to U.S. troops in harm’s way around the world.
For the Render family, the best part was that their Reggie got to call home and reassure his worried wife and parents in Flatbush he was fine.
His wife, Hamidah, said: “He’s very homesick. I thought I was going to be depressed when he left, but he’s way more so. This [call] really affected him. He was really excited.”
His mother Veronica, 52, also post office supervisor, said she’d kidded her son that if he really did get to talk to Bush, “Tell him I need a house.”
She added: “I asked him afterward, ‘Did you ask your homey for that house?’ He just started laughing. He was just in a good mood.”