9/11 worker widows raise funds for memorial

Eileen Ryan, widow of New York City police Sgt. Michael Ryan, didn't have time to turn on the TV Wednesday to see what was going on with the Zadroga 9/11 health bill in the U.S. Senate.

"I wanted to go to Washington," she said, "but things are just too crazy here."

Ryan, who lives in Hauppauge, is busy raising a quartet of children - Liam, 15, Erin, 13, Casey, 10, and Aidan, 7 - who lost their dad to an 18-month fight against three kinds of cancer three years ago.

As tough as that's been, Ryan has another task: She is working with another 9/11 responder widow, Greta Helmke, also of Hauppauge, as part of a group raising $170,000 that will be needed to construct a 9/11 Responders Remembered Memorial in Nesconset.

It's believed that the memorial would be the first of its kind in the nation, she said.

"There are, and there should be, a lot of 9/11 memorials that create a serene place, a place where families can try to find some peace," Ryan said Wednesday.

The goal, she said, "is to create a similar place to remember 9/11 responders, people who are dying of cancers and a lot of other ailments as a result of answering the call in the days after that tragedy."

The group, which is about a year old, recently created a website with the stories of several 9/11 responders, including Michael Ryan.

On the site, one father writes about his New York police officer son, Robert Grossman, who died of a brain tumor.

Later, a son writes about his New York City firefighter father, Vinny Albanese, who also died of cancer.

Altogether, the site - so far - has 11 stories of 9/11 responders. Many of them, according to the site, died in their 30s and 40s of a variety of cancers.

Ryan said she is working hard to add even more stories to the list.

"There are so many who are dying, and a lot of them don't even make the paper," she said.

Whenever she hears of another death, Ryan said, she sends the family a Mass card and asks whether they want their loved one remembered on the website. And whether they want their loved one included on the memorial, which will be built on land in Nesconset donated by Vincent Monaco, owner of Little Vincent's pizza restaurants in Huntington and Lake Ronkonkoma.

"When Michael died, I was numb for eight months, so I don't expect to hear back from families fast," Ryan said. "But I do hear back. And I know that the list is going to keep on growing."

In October, the group raised more than $30,000 during its first fundraiser, Ryan said. The memorial, which will be funded entirely by private donations, is slated for a groundbreaking in April and a formal dedication five months later on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, she said.

Ryan, Helmke and others are contacting local schools to get students to participate in a fundraising 5K walk that will be held as part of the ceremonies that day.

According to an artist's rendition on the website, the memorial would include a granite wall inscribed with the names of responders who died after working at Ground Zero.

The names will include civilians as well as firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel, she said.

"These men and women didn't have a second thought about rushing to where they were needed," Ryan said. "They stayed to get the job done."

She wants the Senate to get the job done on the Zadroga bill, too.

"What on Earth are they waiting for?" she asked.