KEVIN DONNELLY: Fun Is the
Beach
Fire
may have provided Lt. Kevin Donnelly of Ladder Company 3
with his livelihood, but what he loved was water.
Born under the hot July sun, he got a job as a
lifeguard at the town pool in Wantagh, while still a
teenager on Long Island, said his mother, Cecilia. As an
adult, he found any excuse to head for the water, even
when some other task beckoned.
"He kept a bathing suit, a towel and goggles in his
car at all times, just in case," said his longtime
companion, Mary Coughlin, "and in the summer, he'd add
two beach chairs, a towel and a bathing suit for me."
The two of them might be driving along, on their way
to Home Depot or some other store to run errands. And
Lieutenant Donnelly, 43, would turn to her, and say: "You
know what? We can do this another time. Let's go to the
beach."
He was not persnickety about his beaches, though he
preferred those on the ocean. He was hoping to become a
lifeguard again, on some Long Island strand. North Shore,
South Shore. "He wouldn't have cared what beach he ended
up on," Ms. Coughlin said, "as long as it was on the sand
and near the water."
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