It’s been almost a year since that tragic day in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood when two firefighters were killed battling an inferno on Beacon Street.
Kathy Crosby-Bell, the mother of Michael Kennedy, one of the firefighters who died that day, is helping to plan a memorial service later this month.
"I kind of live in a fog," she said.
She has dedicated herself to paying tribute to her son’s legacy by establishing the Last Call Foundation; it's mission is to renovate aging firehouses and improve outdated equipment so that firefighters will be safer doing such dangerous work.
"In Michael’s memory, just to try and make changes," Crosby-Bell said. "Bring the dangers that can be mitigated to the public, let them know that so much can be done to make our firefighters safer and it’s just going unfunded."
At the firehouse where Michael Kennedy and Lt. Edward Walsh were based on Boylston Street, there are tributes to the two men lost last March when they were trapped in the basement of the Beacon Street building.
Crosby-Bell would eventually like to build a permanent memorial, but the priority right now is improving the safety conditions for Boston firefighters.
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She wants her son to know she’s doing something to honor his legacy.
"I personally don’t believe Michael and Ed should be dead," Crosby-Bell said.
