A
Memorial House-Raising
Paul Beyer wanted a house. A house with a chimney. In Tottenville,
Staten Island, the place where he and his wife were born and raised.
So for two years, he laid the foundations for his dream: he got
the necessary permits to tear down his mother-in-law's 100-year-old
house, he got the blueprints from an architect, and he meticulously
planned and designed every room of the two-family house that would
one day be a home for him and his wife and their two boys and
even his mother-in-law.
Last
summer, he began to build. He had completed about 60 percent of
the house when he died at the trade center. He was 37, a firefighter,
a Scout leader, the father of two teenagers, Michael Paul, 15,
and Shawn Patrick, 13, and, for 15 years, the husband of Arlene
Beyer.
For
about a week, Mrs. Beyer contemplated not finishing the house.
"It was heartbreaking," Mrs. Beyer, 40, said. "I
couldn't even go there."
Then
she decided to go ahead. "We knew we had to finish the dream,"
she said. Scores of firefighters, all friends and colleagues of
her husband's from Engine Company 6, are helping her. In the chimney,
one of the firemen will carve a Maltese Cross, the symbol for
firefighters.
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 14, 2001.
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