Lives remade, and pride, for a 9/11 firefighting family
Marion Otten with her sons, Jonathan, Christopher and Jason, and inset, Marion Otten with Christopher, left, and Jonathan, on Sept. 11, 2011, at the Manhattan firehouse where her husband worked. Credit: Marion Otten, Newsday / Randi F. Marshall
I first met Marion Otten 15 years ago, when we spent the day together on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The East Islip mother of three was surrounded by her sons and dozens of firefighters she called "brothers," as bells tolled and silence fell, in commemoration of the day when her husband, Michael, and 11 other members of the Engine 40/Ladder 35 firehouse were killed.
It's easy to get lost in the overwhelming vastness of tragedy that encompasses any recollection of that horrific 2001 day. But in the darkness, individual stories shine through. Otten's strength, her commitment to her boys — Christopher, Jonathan and Jason — and her effort to steer her family forward while keeping her husband's memory alive stayed with me year after year.
As next week's 25th anniversary approached, I thought of Otten, her boys and her "brothers." This week, we reconnected. This time, amid the grief, there was something else: joy.
Otten remarried in 2015, to Joe Pfeifer, a volunteer firefighter who helped at Ground Zero. His brother was Michael's friend, Levittown native Ray Pfeifer, an FDNY firefighter who fell ill from the toxic air, fought endlessly for World Trade Center Health Program funding, and died in 2017.
"In my heart, I have always said that Michael pushed Joe and me together," Otten said.
Then there's the pride in her sons, who were 11, 8 and 4 when their father was killed. Her two oldest boys, Christopher and Jonathan, have joined the FDNY, marking the family's fourth generation of firefighters.
It's inspiring just to think about Michael's sons now doing the work he loved — and died — doing.
"I am a very proud mom. I really am," Otten said. "They had no choice but to follow in their dad's footsteps. It's in their blood. It's what they grew up with."
Somehow, Otten said, she doesn't live her life worrying about their safety.
"All I wanted them to do is be like Michael, who got up for work and had a smile on his face at 5 o'clock in the morning," she said. "That's what I wanted for my boys, to love what they did, and that's what's happening."
Then, there's another joy. Jonathan had a son in 2023, naming him Michael. Then Christopher had a son, named Jack Michael, and is now expecting a girl. Both live just minutes from their mom's house. Her boys are, Otten said, "dads in the way Michael was a dad" — active, fun and involved, just as Otten, 64, remembers her husband.
"I don't see him as a hero," Otten said. "He was my husband. He was Daddy. We had a great, young life. Now, his boys are rising to the occasion, and that's so heartwarming."
While previous Sept. 11 commemorations became easier, the unrelenting lead-up to the 25th now is hitting her harder.
"It's the way it was in the beginning, when it was constantly in front of you, in your face," Otten said.
Nonetheless, as she's done annually, Otten next week will go to Michael's firehouse, to be with her "brothers." That building on 66th and Amsterdam, she said, remains connective tissue for her and other loved ones — and for the firefighters who remain. It's where she'll look back — and forward.
"Lives were shattered," Otten said. "You can work through it. You can survive it. You can put it in its place and you do move on. You can be stronger from it, but we can't ever forget that we were attacked that day."
Columnist Randi F. Marshall's opinions are her own.
Randi Marshall is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
