In the 1980's, Jeff Palazzo was a Brooklyn disco king who liked the cruising scene and obsessing over his Chevy Malibu. At a dance benefit at Bishop Ford High School in 1987, the disco king fell for a self-described "rock head" from Marine Park named Lisa Vissalo. They married three years later.
The disco king tamed the rock head. He traded in his cruising cars for Bronco trucks outfitted with car seats for daughters Nicole, 5, and Samantha, 2. He bought a fixer-upper home in New Dorp, in Staten Island. He packed up his family on weekends off and took them camping and scuba diving.
Jeff Palazzo, 33, joined the Fire Department in 1996. He spent eight years with the Coast Guard and matured into a disciplined student who was studying for the fire lieutenant and the Coast Guard chief exams.
Sept. 15 was the Palazzos' wedding anniversary. "I think, `How can I have not seen or talked to him in a whole year and still be standing?' " Mrs. Palazzo said recently. "I'm glad we started young because if we'd waited we would have lost out on a lot of good years together."
New York Times