ED SWEENEY
Retired FDNY Captain Ed Sweeney is yet another example of the way a father should love his son. When he speaks of his fallen FDNY son Brian, he does not hide the pain he feels at having lost his son well before his time. After a few minutes of hearing Ed describe his son and also seeing the uncanny resemblance between the two, I felt as though Brian was there with us. While Brian, a fireman with Rescue 1, was on his way toward the burning Towers, Ed was walking on Jones Beach, enjoying his retirement. When he heard that the Towers had been attacked, he ran back home to find out the latest. After spending the day trying to track his son's location, he came up with no answers. Unknown to Ed at the time, a film crew had taped Brian looking up at the Towers before he made his way into his last fire. Ed had no chance to see his son or to say goodbye. After months of looking for his son at Ground Zero and coming up empty handed, Ed and his family decided it was best to take some pressure off the situation by having a memorial for Brian. It was November 26th and Brian's memorial would be the next day. Everyone was preparing and relatives flew in to pay their respects. It was 4:45PM and Ed's relatives had just arrived from the airport, when the phone rang. It was Captain Murphy from Engine 288.