["Alina's Place" by Fredrik]
- There were a couple of days each year
you were allowed to take your children to work,
and Joe loved it.
That was his birthday present,
that he would spend the night in the firehouse.
We'd have a cake, and the guys I worked with,
they would take a milk container,
and they'd cut out the facsimile of a building,
and they'd put it on the top of the cake,
and then they would light it up.
And they would tell Joe to put it out,
and he would throw a pot of water on it.
The birthday cake was a little soggy.
But this is what he wanted.
Joe started dating a young lady
whose father was a police officer.
And he come home one day, and he says,
"I'm taking the police test."
I says, "Joe, you're only 17 years old."
He says, "No big deal."
On the other side of the room,
my son John wanted to be the next Donald Trump.
He was gonna make a million dollars
and take care of his mother and father.
But in 1984, I came down with throat cancer.
He noticed then how my unit took care of us,
and he says, "I wanna become a fireman."
I says, "You're kidding me.
"Firemen don't make millions of dollars.
"How'm I gonna live like a king?"
But I was very happy, very proud.
My father had been on the fire department,
and he was the first one to be issued badge number 3436.
And they reissued it to my son John.
So the badge was only used by two.
Both the boys would call me when they were working.
John would always call around 3:30, 4:00.
And that particular night, September 10th,
we spoke for a few minutes, and I says, "I love you."
And he says, "I love you."
Joe called me in the morning
and told me to turn on the television,
that a plane just hit the Trade Center.
And he says, "I'm heading south on West Street.
"This is a big one."
And I just says, "Be careful, I love you."
He says, "I love you, too."
That was it.
We had the boys for-- John for 36 years,
Joe for 34 years.
Ironically, badge number 3436.
I don't have any "Could've, should've, or would'ves."
I wouldn't have changed anything. [sniffs]
There's not many people that the last words they said
to their son or daughter was "I love you,"
and the last words they heard was "I love you."
So that makes me sleep at night.
["11 Years" by Fredrik]