Remembering Sept. 11, 2001

      Kelly was a mortgage broker for Cantor Fitzgerald, the World Trade Center-based bond-trading firm that lost every one of the 700-plus employees who were at work on Sept. 11, 2001.
      James and Joanne were childhood neighbors and sweethearts in Merrick, and they married in July 1998 and moved to Oceanside. James was an avid Mets and Giants fan, and he often watched games from their family room, dubbed "Kell's domain" or take "the Squad," his four girls, to Shea Stadium. Kelly had been working at Cantor Fitzgerald for 10 years.


'A sunbeam in the palm of your hands'
      Janice Ashley was just 25 and worked for Fred Alger Management in the World Trade Center. She was a resident of Rockville Centre and a graduate of Oceanside High School. "If you could catch a sunbeam in the palm of your hand, you would have the essence of Janice," her mother, Carol, said at her daughter's memorial service.
      Ashley was also a painter, and on the day of her service, family members displayed her creative works on easels in front of St. Mark's Methodist Church.
      She shared a special relationship with her brother Michael. Both had a competitive spirit they used to motivate each other.
      "Her intelligence, artistic ability, creativity, strong work ethic, and persistence propelled her through Cornell and ultimately into the world of finance," her mother said. "She will be remembered for her warmth and beauty."


Heroic in his final hours
      James Barbella was a hero in the final hours of his life. As a radio technician for the Port Authority, Barbella played an essential role in the rescue effort on Sept. 11. The Oceanside resident was said to know the Twin Towers like the back of his hand. During lunch breaks he would run up the 110 floors of Tower One.
      "We thought he was crazy," said co-worker and friend Ray Ciminetti. "But Jimmy was what the time called for. If it was a serious time, he was serious. If it was social, he would be funny. But on this day, Jimmy was a hero."
      Ciminetti recalls that the last time he saw Barbella, he was leading a squad of rescue workers up flights of stairs, directing them as well as those trying to escape. "The last time I heard from him, he was on the 27th floor when Tower Two fell," Ciminetti said. "But I know he didn't evacuate right away. I knew that he would keep checking every floor as he came back down."
      Barbella's heroics didn't surprise his family. A former Marine, he had helped with the rescue mission after the World Trade Center bombing of 1993. "He was a hero way before this," said his daughter Joann, 26. "I remember when we all went fishing with him, I slipped off some rocks and he jumped into the water to save me."
      Barbella was a family man, and brought his children to work with him when they were younger. He enjoyed exercising and kept himself in shape. On nice days he rode his bike to work.
      Barbella is survived by his wife, Monica, and children, Joann, James Jr., 25, and Sara, 22.


One of FDNY's elite
      Ken Marino was a member of Rescue One for the New York City Fire Department. The Manhattan-based fire company housed some of the city's most elite firefighters. It was his passion, dedication, and love of his job that got him there.
      There is no doubt Marino died doing what he loved. The Oceanside native was known throughout the community for his high school track and field records and his dedication to the Oceanside and Long Beach fire departments.
      "He was such a big part of my life," said his wife, Katrina. "Now I don't have him. If it wasn't for my children, I wouldn't know what to do."
      Marino always dreamed of becoming a New York City firefighter. He joined the Oceanside Fire Department when he was just 18. In 1990 he was called to duty by the FDNY, and his career dream was fulfilled. He met his wife in 1994 and began a family five years later. Ken and Katrina had two children, Kristin, 5, and Tyler, 3.
      Recently the Town of Hempstead renamed Wiedner Avenue, where Marino grew up and where his mother, Mary Ann, and father, Pat still live, in their son's memory.


Devoted husband and father
      Amy Spear was living in her hometown of Oceanside when she "met" her future husband, Tim Haviland -- who was living in Minneapolis at the time. The couple connected on a matchmaking Web site, and less than a year later Haviland moved to Oceanside to be with Amy and her two children, Nicholas and Jesse. The couple married in August 1999.
      Haviland, a 41-year-old vice-president and project manager for insurance brokerage Marsh McLennan, died on Sept. 11. Amy and her children will remember him in part for the devotion he showed them, reflected in the many activities he shared with them, like helping them with their homework.
      "He was very devoted to me and my children," said Amy.
      Before moving to New York, Haviland was a devout Minnesota Vikings fan, and Amy attended games with him when she visited the Twin Cities. Once on Long Island, however, he became a big Mets fan.
      Amy also lost her brother, Robert Spear, 30, on Sept. 11. Spear was a firefighter with Engine Co. 50/Ladder 19 in the South Bronx, who was working in Manhattan at the time of the attacks. "There's a large part of me that is missing, and I will never, never get it back," Amy said last year during the first anniversary of her husband's and brother's deaths. "I will never have a love like I had with Timothy, and I will never have a brother like Robbie."


'Mayor of the Hamptons'
      Jeffrey Nussbaum lived life to the fullest. He was a happy-go-lucky bachelor who was not shy about having a good time. His summers were spent dancing and rubbing elbows with close friends in the Hamptons. His popularity earned him the nickname "Mayor of the Hamptons," and after his death his mother received a citation from Suffolk County that made the nickname official.
      His death on Sept. 11 took the life out of his family. Nussbaum, a vice president with Carr Associates, went beyond being a brother and a son. He was a best friend to everyone. "He was a gentle giant," said his mother, Arlene. "He was always there for anyone when they needed him."
      Jeffrey's brother Craig says there isn't a minute that goes by that his brother is not on his mind. "He was my younger brother, but it felt like he was my older brother because of the kind of person he was," Craig said. Jeff and Craig were just 10 months apart, and did everything together.
      Nussbaum also had a sister, Melissa. The close-knit family kept in touch no matter what they were doing. "It was like I started a sentence and he would finish it," Arlene said. "He did everything for me."

Making wishes come true
      "Laura was a very special person and one of a kind -- successful, intelligent, caring -- and she touched a lot of people's lives," said Joseph Mendez, Laura Marchese's fianc.
      Marchese had moved with Mendez into a home in Oceanside home just two weeks before the terrorists attacks. A life-long Freeport resident, Marchese, 35, had been an executive assistant at the Alliance Consulting Group in the World Trace Center for almost a year. Twelve years earlier, she had worked her way up from a ground-floor position to executive assistant at Reliance National, an insurance company in Manhattan.
      Marchese had met Mendez, a lifelong Island Park resident and Long Island Rail Road employee, when the two were traveling on a Penn Station-bound train. In that brief meeting, Mendez recognized one of Marchese's best-known traits. "She was the kindest, sweetest person I'd ever met," he said. "She would do anything for anyone she or I knew."
      Marchese devoted much of her time to volunteering for causes like the Make-a-Wish Foundation. In her memory, a group of her closest friends dedicated a bush and a plaque in her name at Holy Redeemer Parish in Freeport, which they all attended while growing up. The Freeport Memorial Library, where Laura worked for five years while attending Freeport High School and Nassau Community College, dedicated a tree in her name.


'A fireman's fireman'
      He was everything a firefighter should be, but at the age of 30, Robert Spear Jr. was fairly new to his lifelong dream. Spear lost his life on Sept. 11 while responding to the attacks as a member of Engine 26 in midtown Manhattan.
      "He was a fireman's fireman," said firefighter Pat Manning. "He was what you wanted a firefighter to be."
      Spear was always a hard worker. As a teenager he went to work for a trucking company, and in 1992, just three years after graduating from Oceanside High School, he joined the Army and became a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne.
      He was off-duty on Sept. 11, but he joined his fellow firefighters in their heroic climb up the stairs of the World Trade Center.
      "I never worried about Rob," said his mother, Irene. "I never even thought anything of it, but when he didn't call his wife, I knew. He would always stop in the middle of what he was doing to call his wife."
      Spear was only in his second year at the FDNY, but had already made an impression and had a long-term goal of becoming a battalion chief. "He will never be forgotten," Manning said. "His memory will last at our firehouse forever."
      Spear is survived by his wife, Lorraine.

'Great friend to everyone'
      Firefighter John Florio, of Engine 214, grew up in Middle Village, Queens, and moved to Oceanside in 1994 after marrying his wife, Shari. Together they had two children, Michael, 8, and Kylie, 3.
      While he was growing up, his friends recalled, Florio always wanted to be a forest ranger. "You just knew he never wanted to be working behind a desk," said lifelong friend Ed Lawrence. After attending Nassau Community College, Florio took the fire department test, and was excited to begin a career he felt so passionate about.
      Florio spent most of his free time playing golf, fishing, attending Giants football games and coaching his son's football team. "He was a great friend to everyone, and he was always upbeat and fun-loving and never in the dumps about anything," Lawrence said.


A quiet hero among us
      On Sept. 11, HazMat One of Maspeth, Queens, lost 19 firefighters. It was the biggest loss of any single firehouse in the city, and Thomas Gardner was one of the brave men lost. He had been a firefighter for 17 years and was specially trained in combating a variety of toxic threats.
      Gardner had become an expert in his field, and traveled around the country teaching law-enforcement agencies how to handle unique dangers. During his career, Gardner earned three citations of valor. He was also a master instructor, and wrote the HazMat technician course that the New York Fire Department still uses today. He was recruited for the International Firefighters Association just five years into his career.
      "He was always so busy," said Gardner's wife, Elizabeth. "It's a shame, because a lot of people never really got to know the quiet hero that lived among us."
      Gardner was honored with a dedication last month on Davis Street, where his wife and two children, Amy, 11, and Christopher, 7, still live.