Paul Talty, 40, of Wantagh, worked for the New York City Police Department’s emergency services unit based in Flushing. He was last seen in the staircase on the 20th floor of the south tower, said his widow. Talty’s remains were never found, only his gun and handcuffs. As some office workers fled Two World Trade Center, Paul Talty was climbing its stairs in effort to rescue others. “I just want Long Islanders to remember that his sacrifice made a difference,” said his widow, Barbara Talty, 46, of Wantagh. “It made a difference in a way that he helped save people’s lives.” When he wasn’t at work, Paul Talty was with his family, swimming in the backyard pool with his son, Paul, 12, and daughter, Lauren, 10, attending baseball games or playing with his youngest child, Kelly, who was only three weeks old. “When he came home, all he wanted to do was play with the children,” said his widow. The hardest part, Barbara Talty said, has been on the children, growing up without their father. Recently, Barbara Talty and her daughter, Kelly, a fourth-grader, went to purchase a pair of ice skates and the salesman demonstrated how to tie the shoe laces. The salesman told Kelly to ask her father for help when she got home. “She said to the man, ‘I don’t have a dad,'” Barbara Talty cried as she recalled the incident. “But I said, ‘That’s OK, mom can pull them really tight. Mom is strong.'” It hasn’t been easy being a single parent, but Barbara Talty managed and she is very proud of the children. Her son, Paul, now 21, has taken the written test to become a New York City police officer, just like his father. Naturally, Barbara Talty feared that harm would touch her son as it did her husband. “As a mom I am not happy about it, but it’s what he wants to do,” she said. “I am just proud that he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps.” Her middle child, Lauren, now 19, is studying to become a teacher, just like Barbara Talty. “I think over the years my kids suffered for not having a dad. It’s still very painful. There is a void in their lives,” she said. “As much as I try to give them, I am still not their dad.” – Chau Lam
