Emotions will run high in N.Y.


	\| Home \| Dedication \| Paul's Photo Album \| A Father's Love \| Mom's words \|My Little Brother \| A Grandmother's Heart \| Memories of Paul \| Eulogy\| In Paul's Honor \| Shine On \|Paul's Artwork\| Paul's Poetry\| Olympic Torch \| Tribute \|Tribute 2 \|Paul's Firehouse Engine 54 \| FF Prayer \| Poems

Emotions will run high in N.Y. leg of relay

Author: By Dennis RomboyDeseret News staff writer

"New York firefighter Andrew Sforza
of Engine Co. 54
will carry the torch
Sunday in New York City.
Fifteen memo from the firehouse
died Sept. 11.
Laua Seiz, Deseret News"

NEW YORK CITY -- Margie Edwards has tears in her eyes.

Just standing on a nonpublic wooden platform that serves as both a makeshift memorial and window on ground zero does that to a person who lost a close friend on Sept. 11 and then put her heart and soul into making life easier for relief workers.

Large cranes and tractors continue to peel away layers of World Trade Center remnants. Rubble lies in a smoldering pile. The smell of a house fire hangs in the clear morning air.

Edwards, 40, spots a New York Fire Department EMT she met while handing out gloves and boots as a Salvation Army volunteer. She beckons him, and they embrace. Her eyes well up.

"She's missed down here," says Carlos Lopez, recalling how her smile or touch on the arm brightened a discouraged worker's day. "She saw in our eyes what we were going through."

Edwards, a portfolio manager, walked the streets with a friend looking for a way, any way, to help on the Friday after the terrorist attack. She spent the next 2 1/2 months rustling up food from local restaurants and feeding some 250 police officers a day.

"We started making sandwiches, and we never left," she said.

On Sunday, Edwards will join a dozen others with ties to Sept. 11 on a ferry boat ride around the Statue of Liberty as part of the Olympic torch relay. The ferry ride will be as close as the flame comes to ground zero.

"I'm going to be crying through the whole thing. I can't think of a more perfect time for this to be happening because it does show that we're America and that the Olympics are in America. For me, it's going to be very special in that I'll be running for all the other volunteers I worked with, the firemen, the police officers and then of course my friend Todd, whose birthday is tomorrow."

Todd Rancke, a broker with whom Edwards worked, died in the World Trade Center.

The deaths of many people will be recalled Sunday during what may be the most emotional day on the 13,500-mile Olympic torch run to Salt Lake City. Firefighters will carry the torch in honor of fallen "brothers." Wives, sons and daughters will pay tribute to men who didn't make it out of the twin towers.

The relay will wind its way through New York City boroughs Sunday, culminating in an evening celebration at the brightly lit Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will run the final leg.

Fire Capt. Richard Parenty will be among the Manhattan torch bearers. Fifteen men from his firehouse died in the World Trade Center collapse. A white board in the busy station reads, "Funerals/memorials for upcoming week." No names are listed.

"We had only one funeral, and the rest all were memorials," he said. Only one body was recovered "thus far."

Letters, gifts and handmade sympathy cards, many crafted by children, have poured into Engine Co. 54 from around the world. They once adorned the station but were removed recently as the crew tries to mourn and move on. It is difficult.

The men in his station, Parenty said, have yet to sort out in their own minds the indescribable Sept. 11 devastation.

"I don't think anyone has had a chance to be alone with their thoughts," he said. Confusion is the only word he can come up with.

Parenty, whose face was smudged with soot from a Saturday morning hotel fire, doesn't like the attention carrying the Olympic torch brings. But he says it's an honor to participate.

"Basically, it's the type of thing that if you're asked, you don't turn it down," he said.

The 18-year veteran firefighter, though, doesn't know if the nationwide relay has any special meaning.

"I think it's a symbolic thing. I'm not sure what to make of symbolism. I guess it is unifying. I don't know. I really haven't thought about it," he said.

Andrew Sforza, another Engine Co. 54 firefighter, will take part in the torch pass on the ferry. The 15 men will be on his mind as they often are.

"You hear their voices in a crowd. You see their faces when people turn around. It's uncomfortable."

Firefighters don't go down to "the site" much anymore, unless it's to take family members of the men killed.

Edwards still takes the subway to the wooden observation deck about once a week.

Flowers, wreaths and teddy bears line walls screening the platform from the outside world. Photographs, police and firefighter patches and caps are tacked up everywhere.

Many visitors have scrawled heartfelt notes on the walls. Edwards hasn't to this point. She searches for a pen before leaving and writes:

Todd, Love and miss you ! Will take care of Debbie and the kids. Love, Margie.

Tears stream down her cheeks again.