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Joseph A. Corbett, 28, of Islip, New York, an employee of Cantor Fitzgerald.
Joseph Corbett
Memorial Mass
Wednesday- September 26
St. Mary\'s Church
Main Street
East Islip, L.I, NY
631-581-4266
October 24, 2001
It seemed that Felicia and Joseph Corbett were destined to fall in love.
Although they both attended West Islip High School, albeit at different times, and lived in the same town, they didn't meet until after Felicia graduated in 1995, then they had a chance encounter at a friend's house. "I thought he was really hot," she said. "I asked my friend, who is he?"
A year or so later, they met at a neighborhood bar. Joe asked Felicia out on a date. Then, over plates of pasta with shrimp and broccoli, they fell in love. "It was meant to be," she said. They married last year in July.
Since that first date, she said, they were inseparable, whether working on their new home in Islip hamlet or out with friends. "We spent every moment together," she said. "We didn't go to the drugstore without each other."
They shared their passions, too. For their first-year anniversary, Corbett, a big sports fan, took Felicia to her first Yankees game during a weekend in the city. They also saw a Broadway play, something Felicia, a music teacher, wanted to do.
Corbett, a security lending trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, is among the missing. "Joe is my husband, my best friend, my soul mate," she said.
Corbett, 28, was the type of man who had a plan in life and followed it, much to the admiration of others. "He always had his goals; he was a person who had it all together."
Not only did his parents and three sisters adore him, Felicia's close-knit family took Joe in as one of their own. At his eulogy, Felicia's sister, Susan, said, "Joe did not join our family in law, but in love."
Felicia said all who knew him will remember his laugh, his smile. "He was always happy, always full of life."
-- Stacey Altherr (Newsday)
11/08/2001
When Felicia Corbett talks about her husband Joseph, she moves from the present to the past tense, and back to the present, still unable, she admits, to acknowledge that he is gone. Photographs of a smiling, loving couple hang on the wall of their newly purchased Islip home, and on good days she takes things hour by hour. On bad days, every minute is painful, she said.
"He was my soul mate; my best friend," said Felicia Corbett. "We had a perfect love — constant and complete — and we did everything together. I don't know how to go on without him."
Joseph Corbett worked for Cantor Fitzgerald at the World Trade Center and is one of the more than 4,000 listed as missing from the September 11 attack. A memorial mass was said September 26 at St. Mary's Church in East Islip, the Rev. Father Steve Peterson, formerly of St. Joseph's Parish in Babylon, officiating. The service gave Felicia an opportunity to talk about her husband, and to mourn his death with his family and friends. But she's still unable to let go, she said.
"We would always say how lucky we were to have found each other so young," said Felicia. She was 19 when they met; he 22. They celebrated their first wedding anniversary July 1, 2001.
Both Felicia and Joe attended West Islip High School, though they didn't meet until they already graduated. It was at a party and Felicia saw Joe across the room. "He's hot, who is he," she asked her friend.
A year later, they met again, this time at a neighborhood bar. She remembered him and later that night the two struck up a conversation. Felicia remembers how they danced the night away.
That was followed by a date, and over pasta, shrimp and broccoli, they fell in love," said Felicia.
"When he walked me to the car, he gave me the softest, sweetest kiss on my lips," she said. "I knew then that this was it."
Joseph Corbett was born and raised in West Islip, the son of Jean and Joe Corbett, now of Arizona. The only boy in the family, he had three sisters who doted on him like he was the king, said his sister, Jeanmarie.
"One of the best things was that they taught him to dance," said Felicia. "We loved to dance."
Following his graduation from West Islip High School, Joe Corbett attended Providence College, studying business administration and later got a job with Cantor Fitzgerald working at the World Trade Center.
"He loved his job, he loved the people he worked with and he loved working at the Twin Towers," said his wife.
He also loved the New York Yankees, the Jets and the Knicks and he loved the home he and his wife purchased in February. He loved to barbecue and spend time gardening together, and the couple also enjoyed traveling out East to the Vineyards.
"He was so proud of this house and told me every day how he looked forward to coming home from work to find me puttering in the kitchen."
Joe Corbett also loved his wife's home made Italian sauce and the two enjoyed eating out and spending time together. Felicia said they were "selfish" with each other, often passing up invitations from friends and family to be alone. "We didn't miss an opportunity to say how much we loved each other," she said. "He was the most gentle, loving, caring person I ever met."
Felicia's eyes drift off to some special place and her words drift with them and then she comes back to the present, "He's amazing," she adds, again in the present tense. "I know wives say that about their husbands, but he really is. We just fit together."
Joe Corbett was a securities trader with Cantor Fitzgerald and had taken the 5:50 a.m. train September 11, as he always did. Felicia Corbett, a music teacher in the East Islip School District, slept late and spoke with her husband briefly shortly before 8 a.m. when he arrived at his job at the World Trade Center. "We said 'I love you' to each other," she said. "I didn't hear from him after that."
She's troubled by the unknown, often finding herself wondering what her husband went through those last terrible moments of his life. "I keep thinking that maybe he was hurt as he tried to get out or that he suffered," she said. "The most painful thing is that you just don't know."
In between bouts of disbelief and denial, Felicia reaches deep within herself for some strength to go on. "I know he would want that," she said. "He was always laughing and loved life, but most of the times I just can't."
"Joe's life was a blessing to us all," said Susan Turner, Felicia's sister. "When Felicia married Joe my sister not only gained a husband but my family gained a cousin, nephew, grandson, brother and son. Joe didn't join our family in law, but in love."
His sister Jeanmarie said her brother always had a mischievous smile; a smile she now sees in her son. "Whenever I look at him, I think of Joe," she said.
Friends called him strong, trustworthy. One, Brendan Bowers who spoke at his eulogy described him as "a class act with maturity and integrity."
In addition to his wife and his parents, Joe Corbett is survived by his sisters, Jeanmarie Rall and her husband Bill of Bay Ridge; Sharon Thomas and her husband Richard of Charlotte, North Carolina and Kathy Curiel of of West Covina, California. His mother- and father-in-law, Pat and Bob Turner of West Islip also survive him as does his sister-in-law Susan Turner of New Hyde Park.
Felicia tries to deal with the realities of September 11. She takes walks and finds solace in the memory of her husband's beautiful smile and the sound of his laughter that is still so fresh in her mind. And, she is trying to deal with a life without him. "The thought that these people could have taken him away without so much as a thought angers me," she said.
The Babylon Beacon
November 19, 2001
With their striking blue eyes and warm smiles, Felicia and Joseph A. Corbett made a stunning couple. They would walk into a room, she in a carefully coordinated outfit and he looking as if he had stepped out of a J. Crew catalogue, and they would invariably be the best-dressed couple.
Their love for each another was contagious.
"They'd have barbecues, and people would crawl out of the woodwork to come," said Susan Turner, Mrs. Corbett's sister. "You'd want to be around them."
The Corbetts would often turn down invitations with friends to cuddle in front of the fireplace in their new Cape Cod home in Islip, N.Y.
"We were in our own little bubble," said Mrs. Corbett, 25. Practically the only time they separated was to go to work; Mr. Corbett, 28, was at Cantor Fitzgerald.
"I feel like they were living a fairy tale and someone closed the book," Ms. Turner said. "If you asked me two months ago who had the best life, it would be Felicia and Joe."
The New York Times
View/sign Joseph Corbett's Guest Book provided by the New York Times.
