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GERARD BARBARA: A Dad and Yankees Lover

 

Since Sept. 11, scores of well wishers have packed the small Staten Island home of Gerard Barbara, assistant chief of the New York Fire Department. Mr. Barbara's wife and two children recognize many of the faces, but not all of them. In an odd twist, they end up consoling some of the visitors, who appear lost. Many just want to hang on to any memory of the chief, who was widely respected and loved for his humanitarian spirit, said his wife, Joanne.

"People I've never seen before are saying, `You don't understand, I loved your dad,' " said a son, Paul, 23. "I say, I do understand, he was my dad!' "

Mr. Barbara, 53, a 31-year veteran of the Fire Department, was one of the city's highest-ranking supervisors. He was walking toward the lobby of the second trade center tower when the building collapsed.

Paul said that when he and his sister, Caren, were growing up, they had no idea that their father was an important member of the Fire Department, because he was just a dad who was wild about the Yankees.

Caren said: "If the terrorists think they have won, they haven't. This whole thing just drove my dad deeper into our hearts. He died doing one of the things he liked best, trying to save people."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times