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About the Site
This site was created to
provide a centralized source of information and updates about Paul Esposito, who
lost both of his legs above the knees in the Staten Island Ferry crash on
October 15, 2003. It is fully owned and operated by me, his brother Mikey, to
help ensure that
all information is as accurate as possible, and that all of your best wishes can easily go
directly to him. You can view find out a little bit about Paulie below, browse
photos of him before and after the crash in the
Gallery, or
communicate with him and other visitors to the site in the
Message
Board,
We would also like to take this opportunity to say how much we sincerely appreciate the kindness of all of you who have reached out to him
so far; your generosity of time and spirit will never be forgotten, as it has
greatly aided in his wonderful recovery thus far.
And, of course, we could never possibly thank Kerry Griffiths enough for stopping to
save his life in the midst of so much chaos on that horrible day. She truly is
our guardian angel, and a part of our family forever.
And our hearts go out to the families of those who were not as lucky as we were
to have their loved ones brought back to them alive. Know that we are thinking
of you, always.
-Mikey
Paulie's brother and your Webmaster
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A Little Bit About Paulie
Paul was born on January 23, 1979 in Staten Island, NY (where he still
currently resides), and has 1 older brother, 1 younger brother, and 1 younger
sister. Our father is a retired Bridge and Tunnel Sergeant, and our mother is
permanently partially disabled due to lower back/spinal disease and chronic
fibromyalgia.
Prior to the crash, Paulie was a statuesque 6''3" tall, and always enjoyed
walking all over the place; I had received countless calls from him while he
was just strolling along the boardwalk or beach on Staten Island, or walking
around the city waiting for his shift at China Grill, where he waited tables, to
begin. He also always enjoyed weight-lifting, bike riding, fishing, going on
road trips (to and from Florida and the Jersey shore in particular), bargain
hunting (flea markets, garage sales, Englishtown auctions, dollar stores...why
pay more when you can get it for less?), and most of all giving.
Paul has always been extremely kind and generous in all senses of the word,
whether it be particular items he would come by that he knew someone would
enjoy, or just his time and energy to help out with anything that needed doing.
If someone was moving, he was always there with his car and two strong arms; if
someone needed a ride somewhere, his little Civic became insta-taxi; if you had
to cry, his shoulder was waiting for your tears. Well, now we are all there for
him for a change, and yet he still remains the same old independent,
happy-go-lucky person that tries to ease our pain over what happened, and
refuses to let us do for him things that he is rapidly becoming capable of doing
himself. Pardon the pun, but he refuses to take this incident sitting down, and
plans to get back on his feet as soon as humanly possible;
and, through it all he has always been the first one to crack little jokes about
it all to help ease the initial discomfort people feel at how to approach their
close friend who suddenly has no legs.
So what will he do now? Well, he is of course running all kinds of ideas through
is head of what to do with his life. He can obviously no longer wait tables, but
that wasn''t really going to be his career anyway - He''s only in his 20''s, and
had planned on going back to school to finish out his remaining credits for a
Bachelors degree, while waiting tables to pay his bills.
So, for now he is considering pursuing his long-time interests as an artist. He
has already resumed drawing, and may eventually look into showing and selling
his work at some point (who knows, maybe a little gallery will eventually pop up here
on the site so that he can begin sharing his work with others right away).
UPDATE: As of today, Dec 28, 2005, Paulie continues to do well
and remains in good spirits. He alternates between his C-Legs (which recently
had to be refitted due to additional atrophy in in his upper leg muscles) and
his wheelchair (remaining up on the C-Legs requires a large amount of energy, so
he needs breaks from them). He is driving again thanks to the use of hand
controls, and likes to get out and take full advantage of this freedom as much
as possible. He paints, spends time with family and friends, and has made
various appearances to speak to others about overcoming adversity in a
continuing effort to inspire those who need it most. And for those who have been
wondering...he has not boarded the Staten Island Ferry again since the crash.
For Paulie - Truly an inspiration to us all.
-Mikey
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Our Thanks
State Assemblyman Matthew Mirones and Arimed
for taking care of Paulie's first set of prosthetic legs.
The China Grill Restaurant, NYC
for the wonderful fundraising benefit they hosted and for the home
furnishings they provided for Paulie.
Oceanbreeze
for donating a plethora of extremely useful handicap medical supplies;
They have made Paulie's days and nights so much easier.
The Cochran Firm
for their hard work in representing us and investigation of the crash.
Chevy's Tex-Mex Restaurant (SI
Mall)
for having a benefit buffet to raise funds for Paulie
WPLJ
and The Big Show
for providing Paulie with a much needed break at a wonderful concert.
Melissa Anelli at the
Staten Island Advance and Ralph Ortega at the
NY Daily News
for their professional behavior and compassion in local coverage of the SI
Ferry Disaster
Sir Paul McCartney,
Martha Stewart,
Ellen DeGeneres,
Oprah Winfrey and Tony Siragusa for taking time out of their busy schedules to
personally reach out to Paulie.
And, of course, all of the many, many individuals who have taken the time
out of their lives to reach out to Paulie. He loves and appreciates all of
the letters, teddy bears, flowers, and various other gifts he has
received. We thank all of you so much.
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Jan 19, 2006- Some total @#$%&@! hacked the site last nite and deleted a lot of content. No worries, as it as been restored from backup. Guess I will have to make the site more secure some time in the future. I just can't believe someone would hack a site like this. Isn't there some hateful nazi site out there you should be hacking instead?
Jan 14, 2006 - Updated the colors of the entire site, which includes new looks for the message board and gallery as well. Also added a new category for photos of the ferry itself after the crash, with a few photos to get it started. I'll probably add more as I come across them.
Dec 28, 2005 - The site was down for the past 2 weeks due to some problems with the hosting and databases that I did not have time to address during the holiday season. The site is obviously back, but I had to install a totally new message board, as the database for the old one was totally lost. This means you will all have to re-register and begin posting all over again. I'm really sorry about that and hope you will all bring the new message board back to life! :)
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