LARRY CELONA
NY Post Online
October 18, 2001 -- The last time anyone saw Officer Stephen Driscoll, he was on the 20th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center - and heading up.
His wife, Ann, told a friend she wasn't a bit surprised that before he disappeared in the Sept. 11 collapse, her childhood sweetheart was running toward danger.
"You don't know Stephen," she said. "He wouldn't have stopped until he reached the top, making sure everyone was out safe."
It was an instinct that made Driscoll a natural for police work, and he joined the NYPD nine years ago after a stint in the Navy.
Assigned to Emergency Services Truck 4, the 38-year-old firefighter loved the high-stakes action and the occasional limelight of the rescue crew. He was, his wife said through tears mingled with laughter, "Mr. Save Everybody."
"I used to tell him I wished I loved my job as much as he loved his," said Ann, who met Stephen when they were teenagers, married him 18 years ago and bore him a son, Barry, now 15.
"He used to say, ‘What man wouldn't love playing with the toys I get to play with?' "
The memory of Driscoll's pride in his work has helped Ann and Barry get through the tough weeks since Sept. 11 and prepare them for his memorial service in Carmel, N.Y., tomorrow.
The days have been filled with other reminders, too. Like the dirty car that Stephen used to wash every week. Or Barry's bagpipe music; his dad was a member of the Emerald Society Pipe and Drum Band color guard.
Nights can be particularly hard.
"I miss him coming into bed at 2 in the morning with milk and chocolate-chip cookies," Ann says, "and all the silly things he did."
Driscoll knew every day he went to work he put his life on the line. In Street Crime, he worked with Kevin Gillespie, who was shot dead in 1995.
He used to tell his family: "I helped so many people, and all those people will be there to help you, and they will take care of you and Barry."
Then, he'd joke, "Don't spend my hard-earned money on flowers. Just have a big reception and celebrate my life."
That's what will happen tomorrow morning at St. James the Apostle Church, where mourners will join Ann, Barry, Driscoll's parents, Laticia and Patrick, and his five younger brothers and sister.
Detective James O'Connor, a close friend, expects an overflow crowd.
"If 1 percent of all the people that Stephen helped showed up, we could fill Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden and people would still be in the parking lots," he said. "Stephen had the biggest heart in the world."
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