By:KEITH GRANT
With an overflow crowd filling St. Anthony's Church last Friday, N.Y.C. Firefighter John Larocchia told everyone about his best friend. And as his friend Tom would want, he made people laugh. As Tom wouldn't have wanted, he couldn't help but make people cry.
Firefighter Thomas Gardner was lost in the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, and hundreds of friends and rescuers came to Oceanside to mourn.
I'm not angry,Larocchia said. I just have an overwhelming sense of emptiness.
A 16-year firefighting veteran, Gardner was a member of Haz-Mat Co. 1. He owned specialized training on a spectrum of toxic threats, including anthrax, and flew to many parts of the country teaching law enforcement agencies to handle those dangers. He earned three citations for valor during his career, but the Oceanside man was much more than a firefighter. His first love was science. He occasionally worked as a substitute teacher in Oceanside, and was known to offer free lessons for kids at the Bronx Zoo.
He was also a big hockey fan who was still active, playing defense alongside his brother Joe during games at the Long Beach Arena. But he may have become best known as part of a radio team on WGBB/1240-AM. He and Larocchia hosted a weekly show, and had honed their comedy skills to the point of penning a treatment for a TV comedy on firemen.
Though a comic in his own right, Gardner was the more understated of the two. He accused Larocchia of advertising the show so often that he'd probably plug it at Gardner's funeral, too. So he did.
Gardner's wife Liz wrote a eulogy that was read by family friend Don Sweeney. In it, Liz wrote that the last time she saw her husband was early that morning of Sept. 11 through half-open eyes, as Gardner told her, See you tonight.
Their first date, she wrote, was almost exactly 21 years ago, when Gardner picked her up in a Ford Fairlane. Shortly afterwards, Gardner met her father for the first time...while dressed as a cheerleader for Halloween.
Gardner opened her eyes to many new experiences as the couple traveled together to Africa, Hawaii, the Grand Canyon and their beloved Maine. Her husband, Liz wrote, was a firefighter, writer, photographer, hockey player, father and husband. He hasn't left her, but has simply gone ahead to set up camp.
It's good to know you'll be there with outstretched hands at the summit, just as you were here on Earth.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani paid his respects to the family, and left Gardner's two children with a message. Your dad hasn't left you,he told them. No one can take your dad away from you. You're going to grow up with a part of that strength in you. Not many children have a dad who was a great man.
He left as the audience gave a standing ovation to the man the mayor called an American hero
