On September 11th, 2000 the world seemed to stop as almost 3,000 people perished at the Pentagon, on Flight 93 and in the Twin Towers.
Debra Lavender, a dance teacher whose studio is only a minute’s walk away from our school, knows firsthand how the events of that day changed lives forever.
Her brother Michael L. Bocchino was a firefighter in New York City at the time.
Although Lavender lives and raised her kids in Rhinebeck, she was born and raised in Brooklyn. She moved here in 1993 and opened her dance studio, Studio D. Her career has spanned over 30 years.
I am one of those lucky kids who has known her for almost 15 years. I have been Mrs. Lavender’s student, and I have heard the story of her brother through our conversations throughout the years.
I wanted to share her, and her brother’s story to show the community the importance of history and 9/11’s impact on people we know and love.
Lavender talked to me about growing up with Michael and his experience with firefighting and 9/11. She remembers her brother as a private and quiet person who found his interest in Firefighting through his Uncle Leo.
“Uncle Leo and my brother had the same personality, so they would talk a lot, and that’s how he got the bug,” Lavender said.
That bug stuck with him, and after he attended Brooklyn College, he joined a company in Manhattan but soon moved to Ladder 239 in Brooklyn.
“He always always wore engine 239 on his helmet because he loved that firehouse,” Lavender said.
After a few years at 239, Michael moved on to Engine 240 and Battoline 4 where he stayed until his death. Michael’s love of firefighting kept him there for almost 23 years, and before 9/11 he was studying to become a fire marshall.
The day of 9/11 Michael was doing what he always did, filling in for his fellow firemen.
On 9/11, he was filling in for another fireman, so he shouldn’t have been working. But knowing my brother, he would have been there.”
As soon as the station got the call that the North Tower had been hit, Michael, along with his captain, drove down to the site. They joined the command post and went to the basement of the South Tower, which was the site of the 1993 bombing.
Alongside 2,977 other people, Michael died that day. Even more have suffered that day from diseases relating to the attack.
Lavender detailed the days after 9/11: “I remember I was watching it on TV, and I had a brick wall in my house, and I turned to it and I started to cry because I felt for all those people, but at the time I didn’t think that my brother was there.”
“I didn’t even think he would go because that was in Manhattan and he wasn’t in Manhattan,” Lavender recalled.
Lavender and her family went days without knowing what had happened to Michael. They put up missing posters and visited the site in the days after, but she says they still held on to hope. Michael’s body wasn’t recovered until March 2002, when his uniform and helmet were also recovered. Michael and his captain were the only firemen killed from Engine 240. He is now buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Lavender hopes that this article will, “make people aware year to year that we have people that were affected by this historic event, and we should never forget those we lost.”
She also wanted me to remind readers that we are continuing to lose people every day from cancer and other related diseases.
Lavender continues Michael’s legacy with an annual scholarship, Firefighter Michael L. Bocchino Memorial Scholarship.
In June, when my fellow students and I gratefully receive scholarships and awards, when we here Michael L. Bochhino’s name, we must remember his life and his incredible sacrifice.