Firefighter
Gary Geidel
Rescue 1
Memorial Service held
on August 21, 2002
Modest
and Loving In his 19 years at the Fire Department, Firefighter Gary P.
Geidel received seven citations for valor. His wife, Mathilda, knew nothing
about them. Her husband was that way. He left his work at the firehouse.
He lived life at home. Later, she learned that one citation was for the 1993
World Trade Center bombing. What she does know is that he wanted to buy a
white farmhouse on three acres of land in Greenville, N.Y., where they would
move after his retirement. At 44, he was just a couple of weeks shy of 20
years in the department, so he worked overtime on Sept. 11 to build up his
pension. Firefighter Geidel, who came from a long line of firefighters, was
a member of the elite Rescue Company 1 in Midtown Manhattan. Her husband
showered her with cards and love letters before and after their marriage.
She knows that she gave birth to Mathilda seven years ago through in vitro
fertilization after a long struggle to have children. She knows that he built
a second story on their bungalow in Staten Island. After the attacks, she
called the In Vitro Fertilization Center in Downtown Brooklyn, where she
had been treated, to find out if any of her husband's frozen sperm remained.
Some did, and she made plans to start treatment in August. She knows that
she will raise the children at the farmhouse that she just bought. "The only
thing holding me together is that I can still have his children," she said.
(Legacy.com Article)
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