The Personification of Grace

 

Michael Patrick Iken 

Euro Brokers, Inc. - Bond Trader

September 11, 2001

Michael Patrick Iken and his wife, Monica, spent the night of September 8, 1964 at their home in Riverdale, New York celebrating his 37th birthday with close friends.  It was a night so perfect that at some level they likely did not want it to ever end.  

It did.  

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael kissed Monica goodbye and headed to work on the 84th Floor of the South Tower.  He was a bond trader at Euro Brokers, Inc.  After he reached his office that morning, he called Monica twice.  The first time was to tell her to turn on the TV because a commuter plane had struck the building, everything was under control, and was going to be fine.  He called a second time, telling her that he had to go and that people were jumping out of windows.  He, like so many others on that terrible day, never made it home. 

It was the second anniversary of the night they met. 

Monica Iken-Murphy is an extraordinary woman.  Simply extraordinary.  The life and legacy she has built out the worst day of her life is a testament to her resolve, her strength, and her grace.  Activist, philanthropist, school founder, wife (she got married again in 2006 to a FDNY firefighter, Bob Murphy), and mother (she and Bob have two daughters, Madison and Megan).  

She used the funds she received from the Victim Compensation Award to launch and run September's Mission Foundation, a non-profit that advocated to secure land on the World Trade Center site for what became the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.   

-AK