Susan Pazmino always encourages her grandsons to have good table manners, telling them “You never know when you’re going to eat dinner with the president.” Little did she know how true her saying would turn out to be.
For weeks, Leyden resident Paul Fisher, his wife Julie and their 8-year-old son Ethan had been planning a trip to Palm Beach, Fla. to visit Pazmino, Ethan’s grandmother, during Super Bowl weekend. Having a long weekend from school, the Fishers were able to bring along Ethan’s 13-year-old cousin, Joey Brook of Northfield.
The family planned to attend a Super Bowl party at the Mar-A-Lago Club and, they hoped, cheer the New England Patriots to victory. But when the five arrived, they noticed increased security, with vehicle and body searches, and metal detectors.
“I just thought it would be a Super Bowl party,” Ethan said. Neither he, his parents or Joey had suspected President Donald Trump would be joining them.
“It became pretty apparent when we got there,” Paul Fisher said, describing how a table in the center of the club had been cordoned off.
The boys noticed many of the club members were dressed in formal attire, and saw many stand up and applaud. Then, from across the room, they saw the president, who sat at the cordoned-off table.
“It was just crazy,” Joey said. “Everyone was walking over trying to get a picture.”
After asking her grandsons if they would like to meet Trump, Pazmino approached the table. To the family’s surprise, the boys were permitted to shake Trump’s hand and take a photo with him.
“My heart was pounding and I was nervous,” Joey said. “I was about to meet the president and thought that was really cool.”
Joey described Trump as a nice, normal guy and “a pretty cool dude.”
Joey “called me after and was really emotional,” his father Richard Brook said. Though Brook had planned to go to Florida, too, he stayed home with Joey’s 10-year-old brother Jacob, who had a skiing event.
The experience, Brook said, has been surreal for the whole family.
“I believe it, but it’s hard for me to understand that my son met the president of the United States,” Brook said. “I keep thinking I’m going to wake up from a dream.”