A Navy veteran, Stephen Driscoll, 38, worked on Truck 4 of the Emergency Services unit in the North Bronx. He was one of many rescuers who responded when two hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11.
Driscoll grew up in the Bronx and joined the New York Police Department in 1992, first serving the Midtown South precinct and then spending time in a street-crime unit before joining the Emergency Services unit about three years ago.
When his parents' Bronx neighborhood began to change for the worse, Stephen Patrick Driscoll decided to help them realize their dream of owning a house near a lake. "He was so anxious to get them moved out of their neighborhood," said Gail Silke, Mr. Driscoll's sister, who helped manage the renovations at their parents' new home in Carmel, N.Y. "His goal was to put them somewhere they always wanted to be."
For months, Mr. Driscoll wrangled with contractors and fussed over details to make sure the house, which sits beside Lake Carmel, was perfect. Every night after he left his job with the New York City Police Department's Emergency Services unit, Mr. Driscoll, 38, stopped by his parent's apartment and picked up a box of their belongings. He also secretly restored his 1987 Chevrolet Celebrity so his father would have something to drive once he moved to the suburbs.
On Oct. 13, Mr. Driscoll's parents finally moved into their three-bedroom ranch-style house. That night, Patrick J. Driscoll, Stephen's father, wrote a note for his son and taped it to the front door. It read "Stephen, we finally made it. Love, Mom and Dad."
"I just wanted to let him know that we were here," the elder Mr. Driscoll said. The next morning, the masking tape was still on the door. The note had disappeared.
Shared from original The New York Times 2/17/2002