KIERAN CROWLEY
NY Post Online
November 2, 2001 -- Wearing his father's loose-fitting uniform, jacket and cap, the teenage son of fallen firefighter Terry Farrell yesterday recounted for hundreds of mourners one man's lifetime of on-the-job bravery and off-the-clock kindness.
The Rescue 4 veteran had saved people from a collapsed cesspool and come to the aid of a man trapped in a car, 14-year- old T.J. said from the pulpit of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Huntington, L.I.
Those acts were part of his job, but Farrell didn't limit his lifesaving to the firehouse. Eight years ago, he donated bone-marrow to a cancer-stricken girl, Chantyl Peterson, who lived to attend his funeral yesterday.
"He loved to help," T.J. said.
"I'm very proud of him and his acts of bravery that took him on Sept. 11," the boy said, then added. "I love you, Daddy."
As thunderous applause filled the church, the teen stepped off the altar and stopped before his father's casket, placing on the coffin the hat from his head and one final kiss.
Other speakers painted a picture of a man of few words who let his actions speak volumes. They told of a former transit cop and firefighter who won medal after medal, but boasted only about his family.
Fellow firefighter Buddy Byrne joked that "if Terry loved you, he'd borrow your tools, and if Terry really loved you, he broke your tools."
Byrne said he knows that when he dies, Farrell will be standing at the pearly gates of heaven with outstretched arms.
"And he'll say, 'We've been waiting for you for years.' "
Farrell's brother, Detective Dennis Farrell of the Nassau County Homicide Squad, wept as he said goodbye.
"I know he's in a place where there's no pain and sorrow," he said.
"He lives on in every firefighter. He's my brother. He's an American hero."
Related:
