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Firefighter John Picarello, a 19-year veteran from Staten Island’s Battalion 21, speaks before a crowd of nearly 100,000 worshipers on the last day of the Greater New York Billy Graham Crusade at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. (MICHAEL APPLETON/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
Somehow, he caught the attention of Graham’s organizers.
“I was shocked and really humbled,” he said of Graham’s invitation. “He specifically asked for first responders. He wanted us up on the platform. It was such an honor.”
Picarello recalled his short meeting with Graham before the elderly evangelist addressed nearly 100,000 worshipers attending the historic three-day crusade at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Picarello said it wasn’t a shock that Graham died Wednesday at the age of 99, but that it’s still hard to accept.
“It’s a sad day. The finality of his passing is really the silencing of one of the most influential voices of the 20th century,” he said. “He always stayed true to preaching the gospel in simple terms. He was straightforward. No fluff.”
Picarello praised Graham’s commitment to preaching in New York after 9/11, especially since the snowy-haired sermonizer was already suffering from prostate cancer, Parkinson’s disease and excess fluid in his brain – and needed a walker to get around.
“By 2005, the city was getting back on its feet, but it was still healing from 9/11,” Picarello said.
The JSP Journal 