In the spirit of trying to generate momentum on my dissertation journey again, I am posting a quick update for those of you who are silently watching on the sidelines. (By the way, you can feel free to speak up at any time to offer any observations or comments you have. I need to toughen up, so constructive criticism is welcome, as are any random thoughts in between. It helps to know someone is keeping step with me.)
So here I am. I spent the week wrestling with an unwieldy proposal, watching the days on the calendar fade one into the next as I tried to get to a “final” draft of drafts. I am here to tell you, I succeeded, a little.
Which is a huge victory for me. One of the pieces of advice my mentor has offered several times is for me to keep more regular contact with my Committee (You will recall, my Committee is a team of three accomplished professors, all PhD’s themselves, who are my guides, my readers, and the fire under my butt to keep me working on this until I reach a successful conclusion).
Over the summer, I managed to find time to revise the first section of my proposal -- the Overview -- and dash it off to my Committee, who were on summer break. There was no guarantee I would hear back until the semester began, but at least I got it out there. It was another step forward in a process that has had me stepping back far more than I would like.
My mentor gave me a brief but positive nod, and I did not wait for my readers to chime in. This is important for anyone who is pursuing a research project to remember. If you wait for full feedback, you may wait a long time. Keep going.
Today I can say I have taken another step forward. Another two sections sent via email to my Committee. Another two in fairly decent shape. With a couple of days’ work, I am looking at moving those to the outbox too.
These next two are critical, however, so I will keep my optimism in check. I am tackling the Methodology section, where I need to clearly explain the scholarly approach I will use to explain how I am going to study the changing communication technologies in grief memoir. I have to get this right.
The other section will be the one in which I offer a summary of the relevant literature that I have examined to offer a critical discussion of the differing arguments, theories and approaches in this subject area of grief, literature and communication.
OK, so maybe these won’t be that easy or that quick to wrap up in a couple of days. Look, it’s early in the week. I have time. More importantly, I have focus and determination. Check with me later this week!
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Get back on that horse
Get back on that horse.
If my sister were here, maybe that is what she would say to me. Maybe she would say, don’t give up, Mare.
Who knows what she would say. All I know is, the mounting pressures of life have derailed my focus on the dissertation journey I started whenever it was that I officially “started.”
I need a push. But I don’t want to ask. Maybe I want more of a “pull,” someone to take hold of me and get me back on the path with a feeling that someone is there to take the journey with me.
It is easy to say, “Relax, just take your time” but when the clock is ticking on the tuition support and you are already living on a shoestring, the challenge becomes how to energize oneself to get back to the fundamentals in every category of life: work, family, taking care of a house and yard, feeding the spiritual side, and a little thing called “rest.”
All while trying to concentrate on a never-been-done-before intellectual pursuit.
I have said it before so I know some of you are tired of the whining. So am I. I just want to be done.
How many graduate students have uttered that lament about their thesis? Speak to me! I want to know I am in good company.
Heck with it. I know what I have to do. While I feel like I am up to my neck in quick sand, I still have not completely thrown in the towel. But it is SO hard to get back on track.
So today I am doing it, again.
Step 1: Return to the literature that I have collected, read and re-read. Step 2: Take a fresh look at that proposal and really chop away at it to get to the real nuts and bolts of what I am after. Step 3: Get the next piece to the Committee and get them to agree to a regular dialogue with me so I can make real progress.
Three steps. It sounds like too many right now. If I can take the first one, I bet I can get to Step 2 in no time. I want to get back on that horse. Just need that “leg up.”
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Question for my readers: How do you get yourself fired up to tackle a challenge? What helps?
If my sister were here, maybe that is what she would say to me. Maybe she would say, don’t give up, Mare.
Who knows what she would say. All I know is, the mounting pressures of life have derailed my focus on the dissertation journey I started whenever it was that I officially “started.”
I need a push. But I don’t want to ask. Maybe I want more of a “pull,” someone to take hold of me and get me back on the path with a feeling that someone is there to take the journey with me.
It is easy to say, “Relax, just take your time” but when the clock is ticking on the tuition support and you are already living on a shoestring, the challenge becomes how to energize oneself to get back to the fundamentals in every category of life: work, family, taking care of a house and yard, feeding the spiritual side, and a little thing called “rest.”
All while trying to concentrate on a never-been-done-before intellectual pursuit.
I have said it before so I know some of you are tired of the whining. So am I. I just want to be done.
How many graduate students have uttered that lament about their thesis? Speak to me! I want to know I am in good company.
Heck with it. I know what I have to do. While I feel like I am up to my neck in quick sand, I still have not completely thrown in the towel. But it is SO hard to get back on track.
So today I am doing it, again.
Step 1: Return to the literature that I have collected, read and re-read. Step 2: Take a fresh look at that proposal and really chop away at it to get to the real nuts and bolts of what I am after. Step 3: Get the next piece to the Committee and get them to agree to a regular dialogue with me so I can make real progress.
Three steps. It sounds like too many right now. If I can take the first one, I bet I can get to Step 2 in no time. I want to get back on that horse. Just need that “leg up.”
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Question for my readers: How do you get yourself fired up to tackle a challenge? What helps?
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
My 9/11 (Part II): Godspeed, Cowboy
It took me about a day or so after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 for the reporter gene in me to kick in.
Realizing that I knew someone who may be able to give me an insider’s view of the biggest American tragedy since Pearl Harbor, I reached out to my bureau chief at People to offer my help in reporting. Whatever kind of coverage they were doing, they were sure to have a full contingent of reporters and freelancers pitching in, and I just had to be in on the biggest story that I would ever come across in my life.
I had no idea what I was volunteering to do.
I reminded my BC that Tommy Foley was a firefighter in the South Bronx and our readers were sure to remember him. She agreed. “Make some calls,” she said.
I dialed Tommy’s cell phone, expecting to get his voice mail because I knew he would be on site at Ground Zero with his brother firemen. I had every confidence that he would return my call, when he got a moment. That’s the way Tommy was. You could count on him to be responsive, dependable, and always, a gentleman.
To cover my bases, I called his home number too. He had moved into his own home several months before. We had chatted on the phone sometime after that, if my memory is correct, but to be honest, the details are fuzzy after all these years. I do know that our phone call that night was just a friendly call to say hello instead of a reporter-subject interview.
He was thinking about auditioning for Survivor. He was still loving his job, but open to new opportunities for really making the most of his life. We talked for about an hour. He sounded, as always, happy and positive.
When I didn’t hear back from Tommy within a day of leaving him those messages on September 11, I began to get nervous. By then, my BC was calling for an update. Unfortunately, it hadn’t occurred to me -- still -- that Tommy may have been one of those first responders who rushed in to the towers to help get people out. I hated the thought, but when my bureau chief said I had better call his family and find out what was going on, I knew I was in for an assignment I really did not want to do.
There was no backing out now. I had signed up for this.
There is nothing worse as a reporter than having to call the family of a victim -- even if the “victim” has not yet been determined to be one. No sooner did I identify myself to Tommy’s sister, Joanne, the words tumbled out of her mouth and took my breath away.
“We don’t know anything yet,” she said.
I was stunned. Beyond stunned. It could not be true.
Joanne told me that Tommy was due to get off work that morning, finishing up his shift at 9 a.m. But firefighting was his calling, and when duty called, Tommy was there. Joanne promised to keep me posted, promised to let me know when there was news. I filed the briefest of stories that week, and People ran another great photo of Tommy with my information. I hated what it said.
Ten days later, I was leaving Shea Stadium with my brother James after a Mets game when my cell phone beeped a voice mail message. “They found him,” Joanne’s message said.
“They” were Danny Foley, Joanne and Tommy’s younger brother, and KC Gross, Joanne’s husband, who had continued to search the rubble at Ground Zero until they found Tommy. Danny Foley made that promise to his parents, Tom and Pat Foley, that he would bring Tommy home. Miraculously, he kept that promise.
It has been ten years since those horrors turned the Foley family’s world inside out. Last weekend, Joanne Foley Gross took that nightmare and converted it into pure inspiration. Her documentary, Tommy Foley: Legacy of a Young Hero, captured a happy, candid young man of tremendous potential, who had lived every day like it was his last.
To this day, any time I drove across the Tappan Zee Bridge, I think of Tommy Foley, because his hometown of West Nyack is literally the next highway sign that pops up on that route. On those rare occasions when I drive by the Palisades Center mall, I remember how anguished I was, sitting in my car in that parking lot after Tommy was confirmed among the dead at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
I sat there trying to find a way out of having to contact his close friends and family for “comment” for my People story. I have been in those shoes as the sister of a victim, and they are uncomfortable, horrible shoes. Instead, I told myself that my empathy would be, in some small way, a gift to them because I would approach them and those who loved Tommy with a compassion that would never be aggressive or pushy, but would respect their privacy and pain while getting my job as a reporter done.
The Foley family has handled their “victim’s family status” with grace, class, compassion, and generosity. They have steadfastly preserved Tommy’s memory and are sharing him with the world. It takes a lot to do that. It takes guts.
I just want to know: How did Pat and Tom Foley raise such an extraordinary young man?
His poise, particularly in the face of danger or the uncomfortable public spotlight. He was deliberately thoughtful with his words. He was also totally at ease. He was, he told me, that blend of country boy with an ability to be as comfortable in his boots and cowboy hat as he was at a black-tie affair in the city. He just plain liked people, and he admired his parent’s more than 35-year union, holding up that example as the model for himself. If he couldn’t have it that way, he wouldn’t do it, he said.
In the film last week, I couldn’t help smiling at Tommy’s reference to this when he talked about where he saw himself in five years time. The package included wife, kids, home, but also all the things he loved the most. “Bull riding, a firefighter ... just to be happy. If I can find a girl like that one day ... Giddyup.”
Then he smiled that smile.
Godspeed, Cowboy.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Visit www.firefighterthomasjfoley.com for more information on Tommy Foley and to order a copy of Legacy of a Young Hero. Proceeds from the film sales will benefit the Firefighter Thomas J. Foley Foundation.
You can also visit Walking Distance's Facebook page at http://goo.gl/I7CFo for more photos from the film premiere.
Realizing that I knew someone who may be able to give me an insider’s view of the biggest American tragedy since Pearl Harbor, I reached out to my bureau chief at People to offer my help in reporting. Whatever kind of coverage they were doing, they were sure to have a full contingent of reporters and freelancers pitching in, and I just had to be in on the biggest story that I would ever come across in my life.
I had no idea what I was volunteering to do.
I reminded my BC that Tommy Foley was a firefighter in the South Bronx and our readers were sure to remember him. She agreed. “Make some calls,” she said.
I dialed Tommy’s cell phone, expecting to get his voice mail because I knew he would be on site at Ground Zero with his brother firemen. I had every confidence that he would return my call, when he got a moment. That’s the way Tommy was. You could count on him to be responsive, dependable, and always, a gentleman.
To cover my bases, I called his home number too. He had moved into his own home several months before. We had chatted on the phone sometime after that, if my memory is correct, but to be honest, the details are fuzzy after all these years. I do know that our phone call that night was just a friendly call to say hello instead of a reporter-subject interview.
He was thinking about auditioning for Survivor. He was still loving his job, but open to new opportunities for really making the most of his life. We talked for about an hour. He sounded, as always, happy and positive.
When I didn’t hear back from Tommy within a day of leaving him those messages on September 11, I began to get nervous. By then, my BC was calling for an update. Unfortunately, it hadn’t occurred to me -- still -- that Tommy may have been one of those first responders who rushed in to the towers to help get people out. I hated the thought, but when my bureau chief said I had better call his family and find out what was going on, I knew I was in for an assignment I really did not want to do.
There was no backing out now. I had signed up for this.
There is nothing worse as a reporter than having to call the family of a victim -- even if the “victim” has not yet been determined to be one. No sooner did I identify myself to Tommy’s sister, Joanne, the words tumbled out of her mouth and took my breath away.
“We don’t know anything yet,” she said.
I was stunned. Beyond stunned. It could not be true.
Joanne told me that Tommy was due to get off work that morning, finishing up his shift at 9 a.m. But firefighting was his calling, and when duty called, Tommy was there. Joanne promised to keep me posted, promised to let me know when there was news. I filed the briefest of stories that week, and People ran another great photo of Tommy with my information. I hated what it said.
Ten days later, I was leaving Shea Stadium with my brother James after a Mets game when my cell phone beeped a voice mail message. “They found him,” Joanne’s message said.
“They” were Danny Foley, Joanne and Tommy’s younger brother, and KC Gross, Joanne’s husband, who had continued to search the rubble at Ground Zero until they found Tommy. Danny Foley made that promise to his parents, Tom and Pat Foley, that he would bring Tommy home. Miraculously, he kept that promise.
It has been ten years since those horrors turned the Foley family’s world inside out. Last weekend, Joanne Foley Gross took that nightmare and converted it into pure inspiration. Her documentary, Tommy Foley: Legacy of a Young Hero, captured a happy, candid young man of tremendous potential, who had lived every day like it was his last.
To this day, any time I drove across the Tappan Zee Bridge, I think of Tommy Foley, because his hometown of West Nyack is literally the next highway sign that pops up on that route. On those rare occasions when I drive by the Palisades Center mall, I remember how anguished I was, sitting in my car in that parking lot after Tommy was confirmed among the dead at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
I sat there trying to find a way out of having to contact his close friends and family for “comment” for my People story. I have been in those shoes as the sister of a victim, and they are uncomfortable, horrible shoes. Instead, I told myself that my empathy would be, in some small way, a gift to them because I would approach them and those who loved Tommy with a compassion that would never be aggressive or pushy, but would respect their privacy and pain while getting my job as a reporter done.
The Foley family has handled their “victim’s family status” with grace, class, compassion, and generosity. They have steadfastly preserved Tommy’s memory and are sharing him with the world. It takes a lot to do that. It takes guts.
I just want to know: How did Pat and Tom Foley raise such an extraordinary young man?
His poise, particularly in the face of danger or the uncomfortable public spotlight. He was deliberately thoughtful with his words. He was also totally at ease. He was, he told me, that blend of country boy with an ability to be as comfortable in his boots and cowboy hat as he was at a black-tie affair in the city. He just plain liked people, and he admired his parent’s more than 35-year union, holding up that example as the model for himself. If he couldn’t have it that way, he wouldn’t do it, he said.
In the film last week, I couldn’t help smiling at Tommy’s reference to this when he talked about where he saw himself in five years time. The package included wife, kids, home, but also all the things he loved the most. “Bull riding, a firefighter ... just to be happy. If I can find a girl like that one day ... Giddyup.”
Then he smiled that smile.
Godspeed, Cowboy.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Visit www.firefighterthomasjfoley.com for more information on Tommy Foley and to order a copy of Legacy of a Young Hero. Proceeds from the film sales will benefit the Firefighter Thomas J. Foley Foundation.
You can also visit Walking Distance's Facebook page at http://goo.gl/I7CFo for more photos from the film premiere.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
My 9/11 Connection (Part 1): Cowboy Up
Some of you may be wondering why I have been blogging about, posting photos of, and otherwise sharing details about Tommy Foley, a New York City firefighter who died on #9/11. Why have I been talking up a new documentary created by this young man’s sister, which was unveiled over the last several days?
Just how did a girl from Seymour, Conn., come to have a special affection for one of the FDNY’s Bravest, and what makes her think that everyone else needs to know about it?
You need to know about Tommy Foley because he happens to be one of the most genuine and remarkable human beings I have ever met. Let me give you “the back story” on my short-lived and unexpected friendship with this young man from West Nyack, N.Y. and you can decide for yourself.
Have a seat. This is going to take a minute.
It was sometime in 2000 when I was working a side gig as a stringer for People magazine. My bureau chief would call me to offer assignments that usually required me to track down nuggets of info in towns of various celebrities who were “hot” at the time. I’d be sent to places like New Canaan, Conn., back when David Letterman lived there, or to Chappaqua, N.Y. , to nose around about former President Bill Clinton.
Once, I got to cover a red carpet event for one of the Harry Potter films, and got sent to help cover the lavish reception of one of Liza Minnelli’s weddings -- neither of which got me all that close to A-List movie stars (although I can give you the skinny on “Ralphie” from The Sopranos, as far as how friendly he was... NOT).
Occasionally, I would get an actual interview assignment for stories about newsmakers like an upstate New York family’s quintuplets, or former Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy (does anyone remember him?).
This time, I got a real gem: How would I like to interview a firefighter who was named #10 in the top 100 list of eligible bachelors? (Tommy was tenth, behind celebs like George Clooney and Derek Jeter.)
Um, yes please?
I was given a phone number and a few details on what was needed, and went to work.
I called Tommy and introduced myself, telling him I wanted to come out to his home and interview him, his family, and some of his friends.
On the telephone, Tommy was instantly friendly. (The other night, while watching the documentary about Tommy, I heard many of his friends speak of his warmth, and I was immediately transported to that first phone call.)
Tommy, then 31, was living with his parents at the time, thinking about buying a house but concentrating on his career with the fire department and balancing that with a landscaping business on the side, a passion for rodeo bull riding, and spending quality time with his family and friends. Many people would say, “Too good to be true,” but Tommy Foley was the real deal.
He invited me to his home, and when I arrived, insisted we go out and have a bite to eat while I interviewed him. He had a seafood place all picked out, and it was as if we had been friends for years. First we sat down at the kitchen table with his parents, Pat and Tom Foley.
What was planned to be an interview became more like a visit with good neighbors. No doubt, Tommy’s friendliness and warmth was an extension of his parents. I gained insight on the character of this young man who could likely have dated movie stars but had instead been a chivalrous teenager who escorted more than one dateless young woman to her prom, usually when asked by a friend to take their sister.
He laughed off the People anointment. The star treatment netted him a lot of ribbing from his brothers at the firehouse -- that’s “fi-ya-house” in New York speech, a manner that made Tommy all the more endearing. When he said he was a New York City Fi-ya-min, it was like he had been practicing that phrase his whole life.
He probably had. Firefighting was in his blood. His father, brother, and even brother-in-law all were firefighters, and Tommy was a rising star in his field. He joined the department at 22, was assigned to Squad Co. 41, and after nine years got the chance to join Rescue 3 in the Bronx. Rappeling from a building to rescue a man in 1999 was the first rescue that garnered the media spotlight for Tommy. That spotlight only got hotter, landing him calendar photo shoots and bit acting roles on The Sopranos and Third Watch.
Firefighting was the dream job Tommy insisted he would never give up -- not for an acting career or any other, despite the opportunities he was getting due to his uncommon good looks and charisma. "It's the best job in the world," he told me.
When People launched the inaugural “Top Bachelors” issue (July 10, 2000), it planned to celebrate it in grand style. Again, I got the call from my editor: “We want you to be Tom Foley’s escort to the People party... We’ll send a limo to pick you two up...”
Of course, I never shy away from the tough assignments.
I watched Tommy work that party that night, where larger-than-lifesize images of him and other bachelors in the issue were set up all through the venue. He was as comfortable in the big-city setting of a fancy party where the Cosmopolitans are flowing as he was in the saddle of a horse -- and there, I suspect, was part of the secret of who Tommy Foley was.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why this New York Cowboy left an indelible impression on me.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Just how did a girl from Seymour, Conn., come to have a special affection for one of the FDNY’s Bravest, and what makes her think that everyone else needs to know about it?
You need to know about Tommy Foley because he happens to be one of the most genuine and remarkable human beings I have ever met. Let me give you “the back story” on my short-lived and unexpected friendship with this young man from West Nyack, N.Y. and you can decide for yourself.
Have a seat. This is going to take a minute.
It was sometime in 2000 when I was working a side gig as a stringer for People magazine. My bureau chief would call me to offer assignments that usually required me to track down nuggets of info in towns of various celebrities who were “hot” at the time. I’d be sent to places like New Canaan, Conn., back when David Letterman lived there, or to Chappaqua, N.Y. , to nose around about former President Bill Clinton.
Once, I got to cover a red carpet event for one of the Harry Potter films, and got sent to help cover the lavish reception of one of Liza Minnelli’s weddings -- neither of which got me all that close to A-List movie stars (although I can give you the skinny on “Ralphie” from The Sopranos, as far as how friendly he was... NOT).
Occasionally, I would get an actual interview assignment for stories about newsmakers like an upstate New York family’s quintuplets, or former Brat Packer Andrew McCarthy (does anyone remember him?).
This time, I got a real gem: How would I like to interview a firefighter who was named #10 in the top 100 list of eligible bachelors? (Tommy was tenth, behind celebs like George Clooney and Derek Jeter.)
Um, yes please?
I was given a phone number and a few details on what was needed, and went to work.
I called Tommy and introduced myself, telling him I wanted to come out to his home and interview him, his family, and some of his friends.
On the telephone, Tommy was instantly friendly. (The other night, while watching the documentary about Tommy, I heard many of his friends speak of his warmth, and I was immediately transported to that first phone call.)
Tommy, then 31, was living with his parents at the time, thinking about buying a house but concentrating on his career with the fire department and balancing that with a landscaping business on the side, a passion for rodeo bull riding, and spending quality time with his family and friends. Many people would say, “Too good to be true,” but Tommy Foley was the real deal.
He invited me to his home, and when I arrived, insisted we go out and have a bite to eat while I interviewed him. He had a seafood place all picked out, and it was as if we had been friends for years. First we sat down at the kitchen table with his parents, Pat and Tom Foley.
What was planned to be an interview became more like a visit with good neighbors. No doubt, Tommy’s friendliness and warmth was an extension of his parents. I gained insight on the character of this young man who could likely have dated movie stars but had instead been a chivalrous teenager who escorted more than one dateless young woman to her prom, usually when asked by a friend to take their sister.
He laughed off the People anointment. The star treatment netted him a lot of ribbing from his brothers at the firehouse -- that’s “fi-ya-house” in New York speech, a manner that made Tommy all the more endearing. When he said he was a New York City Fi-ya-min, it was like he had been practicing that phrase his whole life.
He probably had. Firefighting was in his blood. His father, brother, and even brother-in-law all were firefighters, and Tommy was a rising star in his field. He joined the department at 22, was assigned to Squad Co. 41, and after nine years got the chance to join Rescue 3 in the Bronx. Rappeling from a building to rescue a man in 1999 was the first rescue that garnered the media spotlight for Tommy. That spotlight only got hotter, landing him calendar photo shoots and bit acting roles on The Sopranos and Third Watch.
Firefighting was the dream job Tommy insisted he would never give up -- not for an acting career or any other, despite the opportunities he was getting due to his uncommon good looks and charisma. "It's the best job in the world," he told me.
When People launched the inaugural “Top Bachelors” issue (July 10, 2000), it planned to celebrate it in grand style. Again, I got the call from my editor: “We want you to be Tom Foley’s escort to the People party... We’ll send a limo to pick you two up...”
Of course, I never shy away from the tough assignments.
I watched Tommy work that party that night, where larger-than-lifesize images of him and other bachelors in the issue were set up all through the venue. He was as comfortable in the big-city setting of a fancy party where the Cosmopolitans are flowing as he was in the saddle of a horse -- and there, I suspect, was part of the secret of who Tommy Foley was.
Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why this New York Cowboy left an indelible impression on me.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
Monday, September 5, 2011
Celebrating someone who got it right
When you love someone that much, you don’t leave them behind.
That’s what I said last year, in a blog post about the FDNY’s Tommy Foley, who died on Sept. 11, 2001, rushing in to the horrific scene at what was the World Trade Center. I was making a point about the way we memorialize our loved ones, as a way of keeping them with us as we move on with our lives.
Later this week, Joanne Foley Gross, Tommy’s sister, will introduce her brother to the world in a remarkable documentary she created over the last several years. Tommy Foley -- Legacy of a Young Hero, will premiere at a handful of New York locations beginning on Thursday, Sept. 8, with showings through Sunday, Sept. 11, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
To say that Joanne’s work has been a “labor of love” sounds cliche, but it deserves far better than that. I don’t know what else you would call this film created by a woman who was, until that terrible day, not a filmmaker nor a writer, whose credentials for producing this artistic story are simply that she is the loving sister of a brave New York City firefighter, and she recognized that her brother’s life deserved to be shared.
Boy, can I relate to that.
I had hoped to interview Joanne before this week’s premieres, but since we have not been able to connect yet, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share this story with you. Joanne recently was interviewed by a reporter for Firehouse.com, so many of the questions I was kicking around were answered in that news article.
You can read the piece here: http://goo.gl/MqpCR.
I can tell you this: Joanne’s commitment to telling her brother’s story was unwavering and beyond admirable. She saw the potential and she made it happen. This week, she and the Foley family will celebrate Tommy’s life in an extraordinary way. With his story now on film, Tommy will live on for others who knew him and for those who never had the privilege.
I’ll be there this week to honor Tommy’s legacy, support his family, and share in what I know will be a transformational experience. Next week in Walking distance, I’ll share my experience with you. In the meantime, if you can't be there in person, you can order the documentary by visiting http://firefighterthomasjfoley.com/documentary.html. Watch the trailer: http://goo.gl/Vck80
All proceeds will benefit the Thomas J. Foley Foundation.
If you need inspiration to live your life to the max, then meet Tommy Foley. He wrote the book on it. As a firefighter, Tommy Foley worked hard to make sure no one was left behind. This week, his sister is doing the same for him.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
That’s what I said last year, in a blog post about the FDNY’s Tommy Foley, who died on Sept. 11, 2001, rushing in to the horrific scene at what was the World Trade Center. I was making a point about the way we memorialize our loved ones, as a way of keeping them with us as we move on with our lives.
Later this week, Joanne Foley Gross, Tommy’s sister, will introduce her brother to the world in a remarkable documentary she created over the last several years. Tommy Foley -- Legacy of a Young Hero, will premiere at a handful of New York locations beginning on Thursday, Sept. 8, with showings through Sunday, Sept. 11, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
To say that Joanne’s work has been a “labor of love” sounds cliche, but it deserves far better than that. I don’t know what else you would call this film created by a woman who was, until that terrible day, not a filmmaker nor a writer, whose credentials for producing this artistic story are simply that she is the loving sister of a brave New York City firefighter, and she recognized that her brother’s life deserved to be shared.
Boy, can I relate to that.
I had hoped to interview Joanne before this week’s premieres, but since we have not been able to connect yet, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to share this story with you. Joanne recently was interviewed by a reporter for Firehouse.com, so many of the questions I was kicking around were answered in that news article.
You can read the piece here: http://goo.gl/MqpCR.
I can tell you this: Joanne’s commitment to telling her brother’s story was unwavering and beyond admirable. She saw the potential and she made it happen. This week, she and the Foley family will celebrate Tommy’s life in an extraordinary way. With his story now on film, Tommy will live on for others who knew him and for those who never had the privilege.
I’ll be there this week to honor Tommy’s legacy, support his family, and share in what I know will be a transformational experience. Next week in Walking distance, I’ll share my experience with you. In the meantime, if you can't be there in person, you can order the documentary by visiting http://firefighterthomasjfoley.com/documentary.html. Watch the trailer: http://goo.gl/Vck80
All proceeds will benefit the Thomas J. Foley Foundation.
If you need inspiration to live your life to the max, then meet Tommy Foley. He wrote the book on it. As a firefighter, Tommy Foley worked hard to make sure no one was left behind. This week, his sister is doing the same for him.
Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan
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