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A funeral for Brooklyn Firefighter Michael Ragusa will be held Sept. 8, 2003 — making him the last of the 343 firefighters killed in the World Trade Center attack to have a service in his memory.
Like more than 1,000 other families, Ragusa's loved ones waited for two years for the medical examiner to call and say remains of the 29-year-old firefighter from Engine 279 in Red Hook had been identified. But unlike other families, the Ragusas decided not to hold any kind of service until that call came.
It never did.
"You come to realize you cannot do this to yourself forever — this could go on for years," Michael's mother, Dee Ragusa, said yesterday. "He's gone."
Instead of remains, the Ragusas will bury a vial of Michael's blood, which he had donated to a bone marrow center. A coffin containing the blood will be lowered into the ground at Staten Island's Resurrection Cemetery, next to where his friend and fellow 9/11 victim, Firefighter Carl Molinaro, is buried.
"I dread it," Dee said of the burial, which will follow a funeral at St. Bernard's Church in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, where Michael was born and raised. A wake will be held the day before.
"I could have lived the rest of my life never having to bury any of my children," she said. "But my son deserves to be laid to rest. ... It's only a vial of blood, but to us ... it's Michael."
The Ragusas watched as, within the first months after the attacks, the families of other victims held services.
"We marveled at people that rushed into memorials before they even had a body," Dee said. "Michael was too full of life to think of him as dead so quickly."
Some wondered why the Ragusas were waiting. But it's a personal decision, she said, one that's different for each family.
Dee always knew she would feel when the time was right to bury her son. That moment struck her on the way home from the wedding of her youngest son in July, when she turned to her husband, Vincent, and said, "Honey, it's time."
Given the way he died, Dee was happier in the end that pieces of Michael, the son "who would bug you to death but you could never get mad at him," weren't identified. "I don't think I could handle that, either," she said.
Dee wanted to hold the service before the two-year anniversary of the attacks, and next weekend was the only one that worked.
The anniversary shouldn't be any more difficult than the rest of the year, said Dee, who spent last Sept. 11 holding an impromptu memorial for Michael, and all the other victims, at her home.
She doesn't plan to visit Ground Zero this year, either. His memory is all over her house, she said, down to sneakers that still sit in front of her washroom.
"My son isn't there," she said of the Trade Center site. "My son is here."
Still, the funeral for Michael will be a "full-blown service," with representatives from the FDNY and Mayor Bloomberg's office expected.
Her husband "said my son deserves what everybody else got," she said.
The Ragusas are the second firefighter family to bury a vial of blood. A vial from 22-year-old Firefighter Michael Cammarata, the youngest FDNY victim of the terror attacks, was buried in June.
Like more than 1,000 other families, Ragusa's loved ones waited for two years for the medical examiner to call and say remains of the 29-year-old firefighter from Engine 279 in Red Hook had been identified. But unlike other families, the Ragusas decided not to hold any kind of service until that call came.
It never did.
"You come to realize you cannot do this to yourself forever — this could go on for years," Michael's mother, Dee Ragusa, said yesterday. "He's gone."
Instead of remains, the Ragusas will bury a vial of Michael's blood, which he had donated to a bone marrow center. A coffin containing the blood will be lowered into the ground at Staten Island's Resurrection Cemetery, next to where his friend and fellow 9/11 victim, Firefighter Carl Molinaro, is buried.
"I dread it," Dee said of the burial, which will follow a funeral at St. Bernard's Church in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, where Michael was born and raised. A wake will be held the day before.
"I could have lived the rest of my life never having to bury any of my children," she said. "But my son deserves to be laid to rest. ... It's only a vial of blood, but to us ... it's Michael."
The Ragusas watched as, within the first months after the attacks, the families of other victims held services.
"We marveled at people that rushed into memorials before they even had a body," Dee said. "Michael was too full of life to think of him as dead so quickly."
Some wondered why the Ragusas were waiting. But it's a personal decision, she said, one that's different for each family.
Dee always knew she would feel when the time was right to bury her son. That moment struck her on the way home from the wedding of her youngest son in July, when she turned to her husband, Vincent, and said, "Honey, it's time."
Given the way he died, Dee was happier in the end that pieces of Michael, the son "who would bug you to death but you could never get mad at him," weren't identified. "I don't think I could handle that, either," she said.
Dee wanted to hold the service before the two-year anniversary of the attacks, and next weekend was the only one that worked.
The anniversary shouldn't be any more difficult than the rest of the year, said Dee, who spent last Sept. 11 holding an impromptu memorial for Michael, and all the other victims, at her home.
She doesn't plan to visit Ground Zero this year, either. His memory is all over her house, she said, down to sneakers that still sit in front of her washroom.
"My son isn't there," she said of the Trade Center site. "My son is here."
Still, the funeral for Michael will be a "full-blown service," with representatives from the FDNY and Mayor Bloomberg's office expected.
Her husband "said my son deserves what everybody else got," she said.
The Ragusas are the second firefighter family to bury a vial of blood. A vial from 22-year-old Firefighter Michael Cammarata, the youngest FDNY victim of the terror attacks, was buried in June.
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