Empire State Building

The recent NYT  story about a Boston bombing survivor who plans to marry the fireman who attended to her immediately after the bombing, reminded me of several things.

The backdrop to the story was the picture of Roseann Sdoia participating in the 40th annual Empire State Run-up with her fireman fiance Michael Materia. Neither of them was going to actually run up the stairs to the 86th floor. They were going to walk up the 1,576 stairs, she in running attire, with her prosthetic right leg, he in full bunker gear, complete with oxygen tank on his back.

Their participation was to raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, an organization that played a huge part in Ms. Sdoia's recovery.

I shook my head to realize that the Run-up was the 40th annual one. I remember when they started it. Several times the winner of the actual running up the stairs was a native American from New Mexico, or Arizona. I made a posting February 1, 2011 to relate the story of the Empire State lobby men who used to have to keep an eye out for athletes who wanted to run up the stairs in the era prior to the sanctioned Run-up. Their vigilance as acute when there was one of any six of the indoor track meets being held at the old Madison Square Garden.

Foreign athletes in particular wanted the challenge of running to the 86th floor Observatory. It seems very strange to think in the post-9/11 world vigilance was still needed to prevent people from getting access to the stairs, even if their intentions were merely benign.

There is only one major indoor track meet now, and it is held at the Armory on 168th Street in Washington Heights. Lobby and stair access in most NYC buildings is controlled post-9/11 with an identification check-in process.

The other aspect of the story that hit me was remembering the woman who was trapped under a construction crane for 6 hours in 1985 while rescue crews worked frantically to get her free. The story of Brigitte Gerney is remarkable for the recovery she made, without having her legs amputated, and for the second tragedy that befell her when her fiance, an orthopedist, who was part of her recovery team, Dr. Peter Rizzo, was killed in the workplace by a disgruntled fireman on disability who aimed a saw-off rifle at his head.

Mrs. Gerney son, Arkadi, wrote a moving piece on gun control, 'Guns and My Mother,' that appeared in The New Yorker April 9, 2013. His mother lives in Southhampton, NY.

You can only wish that good things continue to happen to Ms. Sdobia and Michael Materia.

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