An upbeat Mayor Giuliani made a surprise appearance at the annual Steuben Parade yesterday – marching 23 blocks along Fifth Avenue less than a day after he had radioactive seeds implanted in his cancerous prostate.
A smiling Giuliani said he felt too good to stay away from the German-American parade.
“The doctors said there would be all different side effects for two, three days, but I felt good when I woke up this morning,” said Giuliani, who didn’t want to break tradition and miss the annual German-American parade.
“I talked to the doctors, and they wanted me to walk, and what better way to take a walk but with your good friends?” said the mayor, naming Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and Republican Senate candidate Rick Lazio as his friends.
The mayor said he had a restful night but had to “get up a little more often than usual” to go to the bathroom.
Giuliani attributed his get-up-and-go stride yesterday to his “skillful” doctors “who took good care of me.
“I was able to march in the parade and walk four, five miles. Thank you, Mount Sinai and to my doctors.”
Marching two steps behind a beaming Giuliani was his gal pal Judith Nathan, who was with him Friday when he left the hospital. The mayor’s wife, actress Donna Hanover, is in Atlanta with children Andrew, 14, and Caroline, 9, attending a family wedding.
Pleased with the enthusiastic reception of parade-goers, the mayor even dashed over to shake hands with well-wishers.
At the reviewing stand at 69th Street and Fifth Avenue, Steinbrenner said, “The only words I have to say is we’ve got a courageous son of a gun as mayor of this city.”