part of the place

ニューヨークのマンハッタン地区ノリータに拠点を置く，ニューヨーク市消防局の20分署の黒ブチのいやし犬として親しまれた（a spotted symbol of healing）、ダルメシアンのトゥエンティが亡くなっていたことが明らかにされました。

Firehouse Loses a Spotted Symbol of Healing

On Sept. 11, 2001, seven members of Ladder Company 20 on Lafayette Street in the NoLIta neighborhood of Manhattan were killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center, about a mile and a half away, along with seven members of Squad 18, which shared the firehouse at the time with the ladder company.

A few weeks later, during the period of mourning that followed, a purebred Dalmatian puppy showed up at the company’s doorstep.

The dog, a gift from two deputies with the Monroe County sheriff’s department in upstate New York, was given the name Twenty, after the ladder company.

中略

Even after retiring about five years ago, Mr. Toal would return every month, with dog biscuits, to visit Twenty. He was among the many current and retired firefighters who went to the firehouse this week to spend time with the aging and ailing dog before she died on Tuesday.

“There were 20 guys in the kitchen crying” as a veterinarian prepared to euthanize Twenty, who was 14, in the firehouse, he said.

It was too much even for the most hardened members of the Fire Department, recalled Lt. Gary Iorio, who worked at Ladder 20 for 10 years and was present in Twenty’s last hours.

“I’ve been through a lot of stuff, and here I’m crying over a dog, but you couldn’t help it — she was part of the place,” he said.

本文中にもありますが，20分署は世界同時多発テロが起きた際，世界貿易センタービルでの救出活動中に７人の消防士を失いました。子犬のトゥエンティはロチェスター郡の保安官２人が同消防署に慰労のために贈られたもので，以来，生き残った消防士たちの心の傷のみならず地域の人々の傷も癒し続けました。

そのため屈強な隊員が口にした：

“I’ve been through a lot of stuff, and here I’m crying over a dog, but you couldn’t help it — she was part of the place”

「修羅場を潜り抜けてきたこの僕が今，一匹の犬のために大声を上げて泣いている，でもこればっかりはどうしようもない。トゥエンティは僕らの一員だったんだ」

ということばは印象的で，とくにpart of the place...という表現が彼らの悲しみを物語っています。（lua）