|
|
September 12, 2001
When the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, Paul Sarle, 38, was heralded as a "quiet hero" who carried a woman down more than 40 flights of stairs as workers evacuated Tower One.
He was missing yesterday. His five brothers and sisters, parents and countless family and friends are keeping a vigil for the Babylon mortgage-back securities broker who also worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, one floor above Trant.
He called his wife, but didn't reach her, just before the building collapsed. His brother, John Sarle of Babylon, said, "We're with family, we're making all the phone calls that one would expect: to the hospital, to the number that Cantor has asked us to call. That's how we're dealing with it."
Excerpt from Newsday
SARLE-Paul F., a lifetime resident of Babylon, LI on September 11, 2001. Beloved husband of Linda. Devoted father of Jack and Leeann. Loving son of Norma and the late John J. Loving brother of Karen Boulton, Laura Sarle, Normajean Longfield, John Sarle and Peter Sarle. Cherished uncle of many. Paul was a Bond Broker with Cantor Fitzgerald, N.Y. City.
Memorial Visitation Monday, September 24, 2001, 7-9pm, at The Fredrick J. Chapey & Sons West Islip Funeral Home, 1225 Montauk Highway (1/4 mile west of Robert Moses Cswy). Memorial Mass Tuesday, September 25, 2001, 10:45 am at St. Joseph's RC Church, Babylon, LI. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Paul may be made payable to Solomon Smith Barney for the education benefit of Jack and Leeann Sarle, PO Box 412, Baby lon, NY 11702. Memorial Visitation at Funeral Home Monday 7-9pm.
The Babylon Beacon
October 17, 2001
Paul Sarle, a Cantor Fitzgerald broker, was on a top floor of the World Trade Center when the bomb went off in 1993. Composed, he began with others to walk down the stairs in an orderly line until coming upon a woman, Cathy Berner, who was afraid she wouldn't make it down the stairs. She had only one lung and said she was "losing it." That's when Sarle got off the line, grabbed her, and said, "You're coming with me." Sometimes guiding and sometimes carrying Berner, Sarle and she made it down the 90 or
more flights.
This is the story Cathy Berner told Linda Sarle, Paul's wife, recently on the phone as she offered her prayers for the family. Berner called him "her hero." The story Paul told Linda and other family members left out all the heroic details. He simply said he helped a woman down the stairs.
That was Sarle's way. His wife described him lovingly as an easygoing fellow with an infectious smile, someone who believed in enjoying everyday moments with his good friends and closeknit family.
A true Long Islander, Sarle, 38, was raised in Babylon and chose to stay there to make his home. He and his wife Linda have two children - 5-year-old Jack and 3-year-old Leeann. Linda is expecting their third child in February.
Staying in Babylon allowed Paul to keep close to his family. The youngest of six children, Paul and Linda live next door to one of his brothers, John, and his mother also lives close by. Linda said of her husband's family, "He has a wonderful family. They're all very close, and they have really been there for me."
Paul was also an avid boater, and he and Linda would spend their summers at their home in Kismet on Fire Island. With Paul's many relatives and friends, the house was always full. "We have great parties over there. We love to entertain...He's been going over there for many years," Linda said. "We got engaged there."
Whether at Kismet or home in Babylon, Sarle will be missed by those who loved him most. "He was a wonderful, wonderful father," Linda said. "He did everything for them and with them, and for his wife, too...A perfect father and a perfect son to his mother."
Excerpt by Stacey Altherr at Newsday
11/08/2001
At a family gathering in early September, Paul Sarle lifted a glass of beer and said "I am here for the good of all, not for the long haul."
That moment was captured on the family’s video camera, a prophetic statement from the Babylon Village resident who was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center, September 11 and is among the more than 4,000 missing in the terrorist attack that day.
Paul Sarle grew up in North Babylon and attended St. Joseph’s Elementary School and North Babylon High School. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and is remembered by his wife Linda as a man who loved life and family and who always wanted to keep them close.
"His mother often tells the story about how he went away to college and didn’t even want to unpack," she said. "I think he was back home several weeks later. He never liked being away from home."
Later, Sarle took a job working in Japan for a year, but returned home early saying he missed family and friends. "He always wanted those he loved near him," said Linda.
Sarle’s statement to his family a few weeks before he died was in keeping with the way he lived. He found a joy in life that was infectious, and was always able to keep things in their proper perspective.
He had a wonderful ability, too, of being able to tap into people’s feelings and to know exactly what they needed. "He used that ability to make other people happy, and was a wonderful husband, father and son," said Linda.
Linda Sarle said that her husband was also able to focus on the important things in life. That is one of the gifts he has left her, and one she hopes to be able to pass on to her children. The couple, who were married seven years, have a son Jack, 5 and a daughter Leeann, 3. Linda expects their third child in February.
"I can be quite serious at times; I am the one that worried about things, but he showed me how to enjoy life and live it to its fullest," she said. "I just hope I can continue to do that."
Paul Sarle loved boating and fishing and he also enjoyed skiing, something Linda said she learned to enjoy because of Paul.
The couple own a summer home at Kismet, and Linda Sarle has stored away wonderful memories of the past summer. Paul Sarle took his children fishing and clamming and the family spent two weeks at Kismet. Every day they could, the family was out on the water, boating.
Linda and Paul Sarle met through a mutual friend. They went out on several dates, but Linda was busy with school and work and their schedules didn’t coincide, so they drifted apart. About a year later, Paul "persisted" she said and they began to date again. "We went out a long time; almost ten years," she said. "Once we got married, he would always say to me if I knew how great it was going to be, I would have gotten married a lot sooner."
If marriage made him happy, fatherhood made Paul Sarle ecstatic and he wanted a large family. "I kept telling him if he wanted to have so many children, he should have married me when I was younger," said Linda laughing. Linda finds strength these days in the knowledge that despite her tremendous loss, she has to go on for her children. She has documented Paul’s life in photos and on film, and has asked those who knew him to write down a memory of Paul so she can save it for her children. She has also made a promise to talk frequently about Paul. "I told my son we have to do that so that this baby will know him," she said. "So they will all know him."
Strength, too, comes from the love in the family that surrounds her, an important part of her husband’s life that is even more important to her now. She said she is fortunate to have Paul’s family close by. "They are a wonderful, warm, close family and I am grateful to have them."
Community, too, has given her strength. "The way this community has come out for the families who lost someone has been wonderful," she said. "I feel very fortunate to live in a place like Babylon Village."
In addition to his wife and children, Paul Sarle is survived by his mother Norma of Babylon and by his brothers and sisters: Karen Boulton and her husband Frank of Brightwaters; Laura Sarle and her husband Peter Gross of Houston, Texas; Normajean Longfield and her husband Reynolds of White Plains, John and Ann Sarle of Babylon and Peter and Jackie Sarle of West Islip. His father John predeceased him.
Linda last spoke to her husband the morning of September 11. She stayed home to take their daughter to her first day in nursery school. She missed a call from Paul at her office. It was shortly before 9 a.m., and he left the message only that he needed to speak to her. She grieves somewhat over missing that call but chooses to remember their "nice goodbye," earlier instead.
"I don’t want to dwell on what happened, or think about what he went through," she said. "He was there in 1993, and I am convinced he tried to get out of that building September 11. I just hope now that he’s not sad or missing us, but that he’s happy and at peace."
The Babylon Beacon
View/sign Paul Sarle's Guest Book provided by the New York Times.
