Remembering 9/11’s first recorded victim

New York lost a very good man –

Sept. 9, 2020 – “He was truly something special. He had certain charisma and charm.” He remembers Judge’s wit and how he liked to crack a joke.

“Even when I asked him to marry us a year in advance he said, ‘I cannot do it, I have funeral that day.’ I was really disappointed before he stopped me and said, ‘Dave it’s a year away, I don’t know what I will be doing, of course I will marry you.’

“I was overjoyed,” the firefighter recalls.

After receiving minor burns on the job, Fullam was admitted to the hospital late one night and was surprised when Judge appeared up in the early hours of the morning.

“I was just amazed that he showed up. You don’t expect people to visit after midnight. He sat and spent some time with me, making sure that I was okay.

“He apologized to me for not bringing wool socks. Whenever you visit a firefighter they always had wet feet as their boots are soaked,” Fullam explained.

When the news came that Judge had lost his life in the terrorist attacks, Fullam raced to the firehouse on 31st Street where Judge’s body was laid out in a makeshift shrine.

“When we got the news that afternoon we weren’t that far away. They had him laid out in the firehouse,” Fullam recalls.

“He is the only one that had an open casket funeral. I was happy I was able to kiss his hands. I think he knew that God had taken him for a reason. He was there for everybody else.”