Lieutenant
Paul Martini
Engine 201
Memorial
Service
was held on
Saturday October 27th, 2001
Laid
to Rest
on January 12, 2002
Maxims,
but No Wristwatch Lt. Paul Martini had his cherished mottoes,
and he stuck to them. One was, "Don't sweat the small things."
He was always saying that, whenever anyone got frazzled over
something minor. His other favorite was, "If it's not broken,
don't fix it." Take going to the dentist. He didn't abide by
the notion of visiting the dentist every six months. If he didn't
have a toothache, why bother: "If it's not broken, don't fix
it." Then again, he was pretty fastidious about his teeth. "I
swear he would spend an hour in the bathroom," said his wife,
Lisa. "I'd say, 'When are you going to be done?' " Lieutenant
Martini, 37, was with Engine Company 201, and lived with his
wife and daughter, Lindsay, 6, in Staten Island. He liked to
call people "mook," which was his euphemism for "idiot." If
someone messed up, he would say, "Oh, you're such a mook." Except
many people didn't know what he meant. Once, sitting around
the firehouse, the talk turned to another firefighter going
through a tough divorce. Asked what he thought, Lieutenant Martini
said: "Oh, Lisa and I have it all figured out. We would split
everything 50-50. Lisa would get the inside of the house, and
I would get the outside." Profile published in THE NEW YORK
TIMES on December 16, 2001. LT. PAUL RICHARD MARTINI, 37, of
New York, a firefighter for the New York Fire Department, wasn't
just going to take the fire captain's test. He was going to
ace it. "He told me he was going to get 100 percent on that
test, and we all believed him because he studied for six hours
every day he wasn't working," said his wife, Lisa. Yet Martini
still found time for his passions: his family, his garden, fishing
and skiing. "He was the type of young man you could rely on,"
said his mother, Mary. "You could call him up for anything and
he'd be there. I feel bad he won't be there for his little girl."
Copyright © 2001 The Associated Press
Newsday
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