Contributed photo Steven Genovese, new partner in Cantor-Fitzgerald and father to a sixteen-month-old daughter, was among the thousands killed in the attack on the World Trade Center.

Tragedy breeds good neighbors

By CHRIS CONROY

MONGAUP VALLEY — In full uniform, complete with white gloves and black-banded badges, members of the Smallwood-Mongaup Valley Fire Department marched in formation across 17B and down to the doors of St. Joseph’s Church.

They arrived a half-hour early for the service and the church was already full. Still in formation, they stood at the door, some completely outside the church for the hour-long mass.

This was how they chose to honor a man most didn’t know.

Steven Genovese was a son, husband and new father. He was also a 17-year employee of Cantor-Fitzgerald, the bond trading firm that had offices on the floors 101-105 of One World Trade Center. When the tower was struck by a hijacked plane on September 11, Steven was on 104th floor.

“This is such a tragedy,” said Margaret Genovese, Steven’s mother and co-owner of Gaetano’s Café in Mongaup Valley. Margaret and Jack, Steven’s father, were in the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing that killed six people. “That attack was bad,” she said, “but this… this has shaken our world.”

More than 300 friends, family and community members attended the October 7 memorial mass for Steven, filling the small church and the seats set up outside. “There aren’t any people in the world like those in Sullivan County,” Jack said. “They’re wonderful.”

“I didn’t even know there were this many people in Monticello,” Steven’s brother John said as he briefly stepped to the podium before the mass ended. “Thank you all.”

During the mass, the tall Easter candle was lit with Steven’s photo resting at its base. The candle, said Father Janel in his homily, “reminds us that we live in this world in hope, not in despair; that death is not the end but the beginning.”

Earlier that day, the United States and Great Britain began retaliatory strikes on targets in Afghanistan. “It’s something that needed to be done,” Margaret said. “I support the action, but I can’t watch it [on the news]. It’s too much [for me] right now.”

“The worst thing about this,” Jack said, “is that I have nothing to bury. [New York Mayor Rudy] Giuliani will be sending out urns filled with ashes from the site, but that will go to his wife [Shelly]. I get nothing.”

“Those first few days were terrible,” Margaret said, telling of the anticipation of good news every time the phone rang. “We hoped every time that it was Steven.” Friends, both local and from the city, were there for the family the entire time.

“This kind of support is what community is all about,” she said. “I don’t know what we’d do without it.”

Memorial contributions in Steven’s name may be made to The United Way of Sullivan County, 33 Lakewood Avenue, Monticello, NY 12701.