Paul Beyer: 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.
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