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TERRENCE P. FARRELL: Giving His Very Self

 

Terrence P. Farrell lived close to the flame, said his brother Dennis. As a transit police officer, Terrence Farrell's specialty had been disasters. In the Fire Department, he joined Rescue Company 4, an elite unit specially trained to do things like extricate people from collapsed buildings.

Mr. Farrell, who was 45, was not simply a New York City firefighter. He was also a volunteer fireman near his home in Huntington, N.Y., a part-time construction contractor and a father of two. And, a few years back, he helped save the life of a child in Nevada by donating his bone marrow.

Here is that story. When Mr. Farrell joined the department, his blood had been tested as part of a program to screen for potential bone marrow donors, Dennis Farrell said. Told years later that his blood matched that of a small girl dying of t-cell lymphoma, he underwent the painful process of marrow extraction.

A year later, he learned that the child was considered cured. She and her family flew to New York and had lunch with him at the World Trade Center, his brother said.

On Nov. 1, they were back. Fellow firefighters had raised $3,000 to fly them to New York for Mr. Farrell's funeral because they did not have the money.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times