The Flag of Her Father

Patricia Madden was only nineteen months old when she kissed her father, Richard, for the last time. Richard B. Madden worked as an insurance broker at Aon, which had its offices on the 100th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.  On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Mr. Madden was at work when the murderous cowards who had hijacked United Airlines flight 175 flew it into the South Tower at 9:03 am.  Trapped above the impact zone, he telephoned his wife, Maura, to tell her that he was afraid he would not make it home to her alive.  Sadly, he was right.   

Before leaving his home in Westfield every morning to make the commute into lower Manhattan, Mr. Madden would remind Patricia that he was leaving and exhort her, "Don't grow up on me now." Maura Madden said that in addition to that daily ritual, father and daughter also shared a ritual related to the American flag that proudly flew outside the Madden home.  

Every night before he would go to bed, Mr. Madden took his flag down and stored it inside.  Every morning Patricia would exclaim "Flag! Flag!" to "remind" him to return it to its rightful place outside. He never forgot.  Not once. 

Mr. Madden was just thirty-five years old when he was killed on September 11, 2001.  His young bride, Maura, and his little girl, Patricia, have lived the past nineteen years without him.  He is memorialized on an individual obelisk bearing his name, which is part of the Westfield, New Jersey September 11 Memorial Park. 

The wedding ring that Mr. Madden wore was inscribed, "Rich, all my love, Maura" and he was, of course, wearing it on what tragically proved to be the final day of his all-too-short life.  When his body was recovered, authorities were able to use the ring to identify him and to get him home to his family.  

Richard B. Madden

-AK