Firefighter Peter Carroll
Squad 1
Laid to Rest
on September 17, 2001
They
called him Pete the Painter. Pete Carroll was really a firefighter,
but he painted apartments to make ends meet.
He walked into ToniAnn's life eight years ago and laid two
coats of beige paint. He had 19 years in the Fire Department.
One more, and they were off to retire in California. They depended
on each other, but last January, Ms. Carroll came to depend
on him in very profound ways. She fell ill with a neurological
disorder with no cure. It is a rapid, ravaging affliction that
attacks the soft tissues. Mr. Carroll, 42, started to cook
for his wife. He carried her to bed. Sometimes he washed her
back. This summer, on the hottest day of the year, he came
home to Staten Island from the Squad 1 firehouse in Brooklyn
to see her in the backyard, frozen in a chair in the blazing
sun. He saw that and wept. "I had a beautiful fireman to rescue
me," Ms. Carroll said. "Now I don't want to move at all." In
a contorted way, Mr. Carroll's wife is one of the lucky survivors.
She has his ashes and his wedding band.
SI
Live Article
62 Days from Ground Zero
Newsday Article
