An FDNY firefighter carries the urn containing the remains of Keith Young into St. Frances de Chantal church in Wantagh Saturday, March 24, 2018. Photo Credit: David L. Pokress / David L. Pokress
FDNY firefighter Keith Young didn’t ask questions when he traveled to Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks.
He spent weeks sifting through rubble to search for bone fragments so surviving families could have closure, lifelong friend and fellow firefighter Lt. John T. Fee Sr. said.
“He felt like I did, that it was a calling,” Fee said.
Young, 53, died at his Wantagh home March 17 of 9/11-related synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. He had retired in 2016, after nearly 18 years with the FDNY.
But “he had no regrets,” said Fee, who retired from the FDNY last year because of 9/11-related lung problems. “I’m sure he would do it tomorrow.”
Hundreds of firefighters and friends and family of Young packed into St. Frances de Chantal church in Wantagh on Saturday for Young’s funeral Mass, as hundreds more firefighters lined Wantagh Avenue outside.
Young’s daughters, Kaley, 24, and Keira, 14, and son Christian, 20, wore white, as did many other family members and friends. It was so the Mass was a celebration of Young’s life, as well as a funeral, said his longtime friend, Irene Tucker. She was the best friend of Young’s late wife, Elizabeth King Young, who died of breast cancer in 2012. With both parents gone, Kaley is left to raise her sister.
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