So the Saturday before last Christmas, Petke, along with his wife and two sons, his siblings, their spouses and their kids, all invaded Ed and Catherine Petke's home in Bohemia, N.Y.
The grandkids were in the basement. The adults were upstairs in the kitchen. Petke's older sister, Suzanne, was battling breast cancer. A round of chemotherapy was scheduled for Christmas weekend, so the Petke family reconvened a little earlier than normal. Suzanne had that all-too-familiar feeling: Her little brother, one of her best friends, grabbed her by the shoulder.
"Sue," Petke said, "I'm going to do this again.