One Who Counted

 

Marion R. Britton - Brooklyn, NY

Marion R. Britton worked for the United States Census Bureau as the Assistant Regional Director in New York.  It was a job at which she excelled for twenty-one years.  Her colleagues spoke adoringly of her almost-reflexive ability to help the in-need families she encountered in her day-to-day.  

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, she and her co-worker Waleska Martinez were passengers on United Airline Flight 93, which left Newark Airport bound for San Francisco, a destination that it would not reach.   She was among the passengers who was able to make a phone call from the plane.  She telephoned a friend, Fred Fiumano, and told him that she knew the hijackers intended to kill the passengers.  She, Waleska Martinez, and all of the passengers were killed when the hijackers crashed it while the passengers valiantly tried to wrest control of the plane from them.  

Heroes all.  Now and forever. 

United Flight 93 Memorial - Newark Liberty Airport

Photo Credit:  Yours truly

-AK 

Of Butterflies and Other Pursuits

 

Jeffrey Goldflam

Photo Credit:  cantorfamilies.com

Jeffrey Goldblam, 48 years old, died on September 11, 2001, at the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  He was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Cantor Fitzgerald.  He was at his office at 8:46 am when American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into the North Tower by the murderous cowards who had hijacked it after it had departed Boston's Logan Airport.  

He and his wife, Rise, were high school sweethearts.  They had been married for twenty-five years at the time of his death.  He and Rise were the proud parents of two children, Josh and Ashley, who were twenty-two and sixteen when he was killed.  

Ashley is married now and Ashley Bisman has written one of the bravest books I have ever had the privilege to read.  Chasing Butterflies: The True Story of a Daughter of 9/11 is simply extraordinary.  I cannot recommend it enough.  

-AK

The Care Taker

 

Judy Hazel Fernandez - Parlin, NJ

Photo Credit: cantorfamilies.com 

Judy Hazel Fernandez was just twenty-seven years old when she was killed on September 11, 2001.  She worked as a Benefits Specialist in the HR Department at Cantor Fitzgerald and was in her office in the North Tower of the World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into it by the murderous cowards who had hijacked it after it departed Boston's Logan Airport earlier that morning.   

Tragically, on what proved to be the final morning of Judy Fernandez's life, she did not have to be at her office.  She was scheduled to travel on business later that day and could have taken the morning off.  She went in to check on a few things.   

If only the tragedy stopped there for Judy Fernandez's family.  Sadly, it did not.  Judy had worked for Cantor Fitzgerald for three years.  She secured a job there too for her first cousin, Maria Theresa Santillan.   The two young women were closer than close.  Each was engaged to be married.  

www.tilvalhallaproject.com

-AK

Princess Maritess

 

Maria Theresa Santillan - Morris Plains, NJ

Photo Credit:  cantorfamilies.com 

Maria Theresa Santillan's family called her "Maritess".  At 27, as summer began ceding the stage to autumn in early September 2001, she was working in Customer Support at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and planning her May 2002 wedding to Darren Sasso, her high school sweetheart, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.  On September 11, 2001, she was at work when the murderous cowards who had hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 shortly after it left from Boston's Logan Airport that morning bound for California flew the jet into the North Tower at 8:46 am.   

Maria Santillan was the oldest child of three and the only daughter of Ester Santillan.  Speaking about her daughter in the immediate aftermath of her murder, Ester Santillan spoke lovingly of her daughter's smile, remarking that it was the type of smile that lit up any room into which Maria walked.   Fifteen years later, Ester still ached from missing that smile.  And from missing her daughter - her princess - to whom it belonged.  

www.tilvalhallaproject.com

-AK 

The Drive to Save Others

 

Chief James A. Romito - PAPD NY/NJ

End of Watch:  September 11, 2001

Photo Credit:  

Port Authority Police Department

Chief James A. Romito of the Port Authority Police Department did not have to be at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  His workday began at Port Authority Police Headquarters in Jersey City, New Jersey.  He arrived in Lower Manhattan shortly after American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into the North Tower.  Upon doing so, he took the time for one final telephone call with his fiance' Mary Pat Brew Sturdy.  She pleaded with him to be careful.  He responded, "I love you.  I have to save people!"  

And off he went - up into the North Tower.  He was last seen helping get people out of the building.  How many he saved is unknown but what is known is that he died while doing so.  On September 11th, Chief Romito went up to the twenty-seventh floor of the North Tower and was supervising rescue workers who were trying to find survivors. He sent some officers outside for first-aid supplies. As the floors above them began to cave in, he ordered personnel to retreat. A colleague said that Chief Romito turned back from a clear stairwell to go back for a group of firefighters. He was found burned under the rubble with colleagues Officers James Parham and Stephen Huczko, Lieutenant Robert Cirri, and Captain Kathy Mazza, along with a woman they tried to rescue.  He was just fifty-one years old.  

Chief Romito simply could not walk away from others in need.  During his 30-year career at the Port Authority Police Department he never did.  His final posting was as the commander of the Port Authority headquarters support team and oversaw emergency operations. Prior to this command, he was chief of the Field Aviation Section for two years and was responsible for the Port Authority police operations at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Airports. An inspector at the time of the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800, he helped federal and local authorities coordinate information. He received a commendation for valor for his work in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

In addition to Mary Pat and her son, Chief Romito was survived by his parents and by his daughter, Elizabeth.  Tragically, his death was not the first one the Romito family experienced in 2001.  His son, Robert, was killed in a car accident in February 2001.  

www.tilvalhallaproject.com

-AK

One Who Wandered But Who Was Never Lost

 

Gayle R. Greene - Montville, New Jersey

Photo Credit:  Voices Center for Resilience

Gayle R. Greene spent a lot of her life on the road.  Ms. Greene, a Vice-President at Marsh & McLennan who worked at the firm's offices at the World Trade Center, spent four hours every day commuting between her office and her home in Montville, New Jersey.   The Vice-President of the firm's Professional Resource Group, she was in her office on the 100th floor of the North Tower when the murderous cowards who had hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 after it took off from Boston's Logan Airport bound for California, flew the jet into the building.  Gayle Greene was just fifty-one years old. 

Notwithstanding her inarguable proficiency at her job and her workaholic tendencies, back and forth between Morris County, New Jersey and Lower Manhattan was not her favorite trip.  She had what is often referred to as wanderlust.  She took two trips every year, to locales as diverse as Alaska, Las Vegas, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Her favorite place?  Hawaii.    

Her best friend and roommate, Eileen Carey, noted that Gayle Greene often said that the best day of her life was one she spent on a catamaran off the emerald-hued Na Pali coast of Kauai.   

In her will, she directed that her ashes be scattered there.  

www.tilvalhallaproject.com

-AK

Forever Young

 

Matthew C. Sellitto - Harding Township, N.J.

Photo Credit:  Loreen and Matt Sellitto (Parents)

Matthew C. Sellitto was only twenty-three years old - twenty-three - when he was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  He worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.  He has started at Cantor in March 2001 as a trainee in its interest rate derivative group.  On September 10, 2001, he was assigned his own client base in his position as a medium-term interest rate swaps trader.  

His mom, Loreen, following his death filled pages of her journal with notes written to her son, putting into writing the incredible grief and pain she was feeling.  Each one certainly broke her heart anew to write.  Yet she wrote them.   Tragically, while Matthew was Loreen and Matt Sellitto's oldest son, he would not be the only one they would lose far too soon.    Jonathan Sellitto was four-and-one-half years younger than his big brother, following him through Harding Township Elementary School (where the gymnasium is now named for Matthew C. Sellitto)  Unfortunately, on March 15, 2017,  Jonathan Sellitto died suddenly.  He was just thirty-four years old.  He was survived by his wife, Andrea Stackland-Winterer, and his daughter, Finley.  His mom and dad survived him as well.  

It is inarguably a disturbance to the Universe's natural order for a parent to have to bury a child.  Loreen and Matt Sellitto had to endure it twice.  They buried both of their sons.  It is a burden so unfair, so brutal, and so terrible no one should ever have to bear it.  Not only have they borne it but they have honored the legacies of the sons they loved so much and lost so soon through their Foundation, which they created after Matthew's death in 2001.       

www.tilvalhallaproject.com

-AK

The Queen of Queens

 

Lucille T. King - Ridgewood, Queens

Photo Credit:  Voices Center for Resilience 

Lucille T. King of Ridgewood, Queens was - depending on who you asked - either a creature of habit the likes of which one does not normally encounter or the possessor of a stubborn streak more normally associated with an inanimate object or a mule.   Her take?  She knew what she liked and stuck with it.  She and her husband, Richard, lived in the same apartment in Ridgewood, Queens, for the entirety of their thirty-one year marriage.  Every Sunday morning at 8 am she drove down to Lower Manhattan to visit with - and spend the day cooking with - her parents.  Every year she and Richard took their vacation in the Catskills at Wolff's Maple Breeze Resort. 

She worked at Aon Corporation in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.  Ms. King, 59 years old, was at her office when the murderous cowards who had hijacked American Airlines Flight 175 out of Logan Airport flew it into the South Tower at 9:03 am on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. 

The "thing she liked and stuck with it" of hers that I found particularly compelling was her season-long wager with Richard on the outcome of Yankees games.  She loved her Bronx Bombers.  So much so that she bet on them to win every game.  Richard?  He bet on whomever the Yankees were playing.  The stakes?  Twenty-five cents a game.  I smile just thinking about it.  Hell, I am smiling as I am typing these words right now. 

Photo Credit:  Til Valhalla Project

www.tilvalhallaproject.com 

-AK 

 

The Marathon Man

 

David G. Carlone - Randolph, New Jersey

Photo Credit:  Voices Center for Resilience

David G. Carlone, 46, from Randolph, New Jersey, in 1995 left his job working for a company in the World Trade Center to take a job with FM Global, which was fifteen minutes from his home in Morris County, New Jersey.  According to his wife, Beverly, he did so because the commute to/from work every day kept him away from her and the couple's three sons, Darrick, Nicholas, and Matthew, just as the boys were getting involved in playing sports and other after-school activities.  Their dad did not want to miss seeing them grow up.  So, he took a job that eliminated his commute and allowed him to be home more for them and be more involved in their day-to-day.   His boys were 17, 15, and 12 respectively when he was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  He coached them in baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. 

Although he no longer worked at the World Trade Center, his work took him back to them every now and again.  As fate would have it, on the morning of September 11, 2001, he was at the offices of Aon on the 105th floor of the South Tower when the murderous cowards who had hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 shortly after it had left Logan Airport that morning - bound for Los Angeles - flew it into the South Tower at 9:03 am.  

He and Beverly got married in 1980, roughly three years after their first date, on which he told her he was going to marry her.  She pointed out that his promise to her was not the only one he made and kept.  Training for his first marathon, he had promised her he would finish it in less than three hours.  He proposed to her the night before that first marathon but after slipping the ring onto her finger, he kissed her only on the cheek, telling her that he had trained hard and did not want to risk catching a cold the night before the race.  At age 46, he had completed twenty of them, all of which he completed in less than three hours.   

Photo Credit: www.tilvalhallaproject.com 

-AK 

One Who Helped Others

 

Barry H. Glick - Wayne, New Jersey 

Photo Credit:  Voices Center for Resilience

Barry Glick, 56 years old, worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in his office on the 64th floor of the North Tower.   He was its Risk Manager, a position which placed him in the center of handling insurance matters arising out of the various properties the Authority owns.   Mr. Glick was among the thousands of innocents murdered by the cowards who deliberately flew jet airplanes into the North Tower and South Tower on September 11, 2001.  In a tragic twist of fate, Mr. Glick and his group had just resolved in the months leading up to that terrible Tuesday morning the final claims that had arisen out of the February 26, 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.  

He was a man who loved to help other people.  His daughter Jean Neufeld shared that her dad enjoyed spending his lunch hour riding the elevator down to the Complex's ground floor and helping tourists who were lost.   When he was not serving as Lower Manhattan's honorary volunteer tour guide, he and his wife Judy loved to travel, music, and the arts.  In addition to Judy and Jean, he was also survived by his son, Jeremy.  

Photo Credit:  Adventist Health Care 

-AK 

A Feeling of Renewal

 

Mary Catherine Murphy Boffa

Marsh & McLennan

At just forty-five years of age, Mary Catherine Murphy Boffa was filled of a renewed sense of energy and purpose in the late summer of 2021.  An Associate Vice-President at Marsh & McLennan, she worked on the 93rd floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center.  She was one of four Murphy sisters, a quartet that formed the backbone of a sprawling, fun-loving family that included thirty (30) first cousins.  Not terribly long before the terrible Tuesday morning on which she was killed, she had separated from her husband, Joseph Boffa, and had moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Staten Island.  She bought new furniture.  She enjoyed the views of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that it afforded her.   Most of all, she loved what it symbolized.  As her nephew Michael Trudeau said in the weeks after his aunt's death, "She was very excited.  It was renewal for her."    

On September 11, 2001, Mary Catherine Murphy Boffa was in her office on the 93rd Floor of the North Tower when the murderous cowards who had hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 after it departed Logan Airport in Boston that morning, flew it into the building at 8:46 am.   She was one of the 358 Marsh McLennan colleagues and friends killed that morning.  

The 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks is three weeks from today.  In 21 days, it shall mark 22 years since Mary Catherine Murphy Boffa and the other innocents were murdered in Lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon, and on United Airlines Flight 93.  The next time you hear someone ask aloud (whether to you or not) "Why do you still remember and talk about September 11?", you may feel free to tell that person that it shall be forever remembered and spoken about because of people like Mary Catherine Murphy Boffa.  She was poised to all begin anew once more.  As her nephew Michael Trudeau described it, she was experiencing a 'renewal'.  The chance to see where that renewal was going to take her and the chance for her to chart a course for this next act of her life was stolen from her.  It is as apt a demonstration of life's inherent inequities as any other of which I can think.  

Photo Credit and Copyright:  

jd-photodesign

The Pancake King

 

Police Officer Liam Callahan 

Port Authority Police Department

End of Watch:  September 11, 2001

Liam Callahan, 44, spent half of his life in the service of others as a Police Officer in the Port Authority Police Department.   He and his wife, Joan, lived in Rockaway, New Jersey with their four children.   On September 12, 2001 they would have celebrated their 20th anniversary.  Tragically, they did not get the chance.  He died in the line of duty on September 11, 2001, while saving others at the World Trade Center.  

In his twenty-two years of serving and protecting the people of New York and New Jersey, he earned a half dozen citations for exemplary service, beginning with the one he earned as a rookie on September 9, 1982, when he talked a 20-year-old man who was distraught out of killing himself by jumping off the roof of the Port Authority bus terminal.  When he was not serving and protecting, he was making pancakes for his kids in the morning and taking them to school.  

On what proved to be the final morning of his life, Liam Callahan was one of the first first responders to arrive at the World Trade Center.  He was last seen on the 65th floor in the North Tower trying to help those in the building get to safety.   He, himself, did not.  Officer Callahan was one of thirty-seven members of the Port Authority Police Department killed on that terrible Tuesday morning.  

Port Authority Police Dept. Memorial Pin

Photo Credit:  Port Authority of New York/New Jersey

-AK

In Honor of Auntie Ces

Cecile M. Caguicla

Cecile M. Caguicla emigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1975, when she was twenty-nine years old.   In September 2001, twenty-six years later, she lived in Boonton, New Jersey with her friend and housemate, Maria Luciano, and worked in Lower Manhattan at the World Trade Center.  She was a Vice-President in the Corporate Accounting Department at Marsh McLennan.   She was fifty-five years old when she was killed on September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center. 

Maria Luciano saw her great friend and housemate for what neither could have known would be the final time at or about 8:10 that morning as Ms. Caguicla stopped to buy a blueberry muffin.  The two women went their separate ways.  

In addition to Maria Luciano, Ms. Caguicla was survived by five sisters and one brother, all but one of whom lived in Manila, the Philippines at the time of her death.  She was, according to Ms. Luciano, an extremely private person.  So private in fact that Ms. Luciano confessed that, "I didn't know her age until now. I didn't know her salary. I didn't know she was an assistant vice president.  I only knew when she was named employee of the year."

-AK

 

The Ultimate Girl Dad

Dennis Buckley - Chatham, New Jersey

Photo Credit:  Kathleen Buckley

Dennis Buckley of Chatham, New Jersey and his wife, Kathleen, were the proud parents of three little girls, ranging in age from 22 months to six years old, when he was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  At age 38, he worked at Cantor Fitzgerald as a Vice-President, Municipal Bonds, and was in his office in the North Tower on that terrible Tuesday morning.   

He and Kathleen met in 1988 at The Big Cahuna, a club in Lower Manhattan, began dating shortly thereafter, and were married in October 1992.   He began working at Cantor Fitzgerald in January 1993.   The couple moved to Chatham, New Jersey in 1994, which is where Mary Kate, Megan, and Michele were born.  Mary Kate, the oldest, turned six less than two weeks after her dad’s death.  

At 6’2” and 210 pounds, he retained the physique that had made him an All-American Lacrosse player at Lynbrook, NY high school and, later, earned him a lacrosse scholarship to the University of Maryland.  

As big as he was and as physically imposing as he was, Kathleen said he was happiest with her and their girls, all of whom loved their Barbie dolls.  He always seemed to have a Barbie doll sticking out of his pocket when he was with them and loved taking them to the swim club where each daughter proudly displayed her pink Barbie towel. 

His Barbie girls are all adults now.  Mary Kate will be twenty-eight this year.  Michele, who had less than two years with her dad, is herself in her early twenties.  

Whenever anyone dares to ask why it is so important that we never forget the lives lost that day, remind them that every soul lost that day was connected to at least one other person to whom they were lost forever.   It is only fair that they are remembered for at least that long.

Chatham, New Jersey September 11 Memorial 

Photo Credit:  TAP Chatham

-AK

 

One to be Remembered for Now and Evermore

 

Captain Robert E. Dolan, United States Navy

Photo Credit:  United States Navy

Robert E. Dolan of Alexandria, Virginia, who was born and raised in Florham Park, New Jersey spent twenty years in the service of this nation as a member of the United States Navy.  After graduating from Hanover Park High School in East Hanover, New Jersey, he attended the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1981 with a degree in ocean engineering.  Among his honors were the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.  

Captain Dolan was just forty-three years old when he was killed on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.  He had just begun serving in his new post, Head of Strategy and Concepts for the Chief of Naval Operations.  His office was on the first floor of D Ring at the Pentagon.  His was among the offices struck when Flight 77 was flown into the Pentagon by the murderous cowards who had hijacked it.   He was survived by Lisa, his wife of nineteen years, and the couple's two children, Rebecca and Beau, who were fifteen and nine respectively.  His parents, who remained in Florham Park, lived through a parent's worst nightmare, having to bury their child, one of their three sons.  

-AK 

Mr. Invincible

Daniel R. Nolan lived his life as if he was invincible.  He knew, of course, he was not but it did not dampen his enthusiasm for living life at the edges.  He skied black diamond slopes.  He scuba dived to the depths of the ocean.  He had no fear.  

At just 44 years of age, he was an Assistant Vice President - Computer Technology Services at Johnson & Higgins/Marsh McLennan.  On September 11, 2001 he was at his office in North Tower of the World Trade Center when he was killed.  He was one of 358 Marsh McLennan employees who were murdered that day.

Daniel Nolan and Renee, his wife, lived in Hopatcong, New Jersey with their two children, Jonathan Daniel and Kaitlyn Eileen, who were just seven and four years old when he was taken from them.   He graduated from the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business in 1983.  He was one of a half-dozen University of Hartford graduates killed on September 11.  

Kaitlyn Eileen Nolan is now Katie Nolan, the proud mother of Daniel Ray Wheeler, named for the grandfather he never met, who at just five months old accompanied his mom from their home in Wichita, Kansas to Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2021 where she read her father's name at the 20th Anniversary Remembrance.  

-AK 

A Tree and Its Roots

 

Stanhope, New Jersey September 11 2001 Memorial 

Photo Credit:  Vera Olinski 

Joseph B. Vilardo was a Senior Vice-President at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities.  On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, he was in his office on the 104th floor of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into it by the murderous cowards who hijacked it.  

He was only forty-two years old when he was killed.  He and his wife, Patricia, lived in Stanhope, New Jersey with their children, Nicole and Matthew.  He was an avid skier, Matthew's Little League coach and hiker who loved playing his guitar and spending time with his family.  He spent what turned out to be the final night of his life doing something with Matthew that the two had never before done together:  They went up the street to Lenape Valley High School's track and went for a run.   

Matt Vilardo credits running with saving his life.  He has paid it forward.  He owns and operates Root Runners in Sparta, New Jersey.   "Root" is an acronym for "Running Over Our Troubles", which is a mantra he applies to his own life.  As should we all. 

-AK  

Boys R Us

 

John Paul Bocchi

Photo Credit:  Voices Center for Resilence

At thirty-eight years old, John Paul Bocchi had it all.  A Managing Director at Cantor Fitzgerald, he and his wife, Michele, were the proud parents of four sons, all of whom were under the age of ten when he was killed on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, while he was at work in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.  

John Paul, Michele, and their four boys lived in New Vernon, New Jersey.  Even though he worked in Lower Manhattan in the fast-paced world of high finance, Michele said one of his favorite things was Friday night pizza with her and the boys.  While his time with the five of them was far too short, the impact he made upon them carried forward long after he was taken from them.  You need to look no further than Matthew's comments on his father's obituary to see it.    Or, if you prefer, you need to look no further than Matthew Bocchi and his memoir, Sway.  

Forever their father.  Forever taken from them far too soon.  

-AK 

Time, the Conqueror

Margaret L. Benson worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for approximately thirty-three years.  Initially hired as a clerk, she was working in Human Resources when she was killed by the murderous cowards who flew an almost fully-fueled jet into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.  

Born in Brooklyn, Margaret Benson lived with her husband Jim in Rockaway Township, New Jersey, which is where they raised their two children.   She was just fifty-two years young at the time of her death.

If you have never visited the National September 11, 2001 Museum in Manhattan, then you certainly should.  It is extraordinary in too many ways for me to adequately express.  Among the incredible items that have been displayed there is the wristwatch Margaret Benson was wearing on what proved to be the final morning of her life.  When it was recovered from the rubble at Ground Zero, it was, "heavily scratched, tarnished, and encrusted in dust. The time is stopped just before 7:30."

-AK

H and D Forever

Less than thirty days from now is the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 murderous, cowardly attacks.  Among those souls who were lost on that terrible Tuesday morning was Donald Leroy Adams of Chatham, New Jersey.   He was just twenty-eight years old.  

Donald L. Adams - Cantor Fitzgerald 

Photo Credit:  Heda Adams 

He was one of the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees murdered that morning.  A Vice-President of Sales in the firm's electronic trading division, eSpeed, he was on the 105th floor of the North Tower when it was struck.  

Donald Adams and his wife, Heda, both graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, where he was an offensive lineman on the school's football team.  Just six months before he was murdered, the couple welcomed their first child.  Heda Adams and baby Rebecca would, on summer evenings, sit on the front porch of the family's home in Chatham waiting for him to walk up the road from the train station, listening for him to greet them with, "There's my girls!"  

Heda Adams' eloquence is something that I cannot match.  I shall not attempt to do so.  Hers is extraordinary: 

Donald Adams, standing 6'5", was an impressive sight, but his personality was even more impressive.  He had a tremendous love for life.  As soon as you met him you could feel it.  He greeted you with a hello that could be heard from miles and a handshake that meant business.  Before long you were hugging and sharing stories and meeting at a bar for drinks.  His friends became his family and once you were family you were connected.  That meant going out to dinner, coming to the house for gatherings and, of course, golfing.  For those who played golf with Don knew you played until you dropped.  Golf to Don was like water to fish. 

The most important part of his life was his family, his daughter Rebecca and myself, his wife.  He was a devoted husband and father.  Our wedding 3 1/2 years ago was a magical day which brought our spirits together as one.  The birth of our daughter was a miracle that brought our physical beings together as one.  Our lives became complete with Rebecca.  In the 5 months that he knew Rebecca, Don gave her more love than some people receive in a lifetime.  At the end of the day, a kiss went to Rebecca and a kiss went to me.  His world was complete.  

Now as we move on and pick up the pieces, we draw on Don's strength and love for life to get us out of the dark. 

D, I love you and miss you.  H.  

-AK

He Took Care of It

Remembering Charles Mathers of Sea Girt NJ

at the 2023 Sea Girt 5K 

This past Saturday my friend Sue Kizis and I ran in the 32nd Annual Sea Girt 5K.   As it always is, it was a great event.  As it always is, the post-race gathering at Fratello's Restaurant was also a great event.  It was there where we saw this gentleman wearing this shirt.  Not knowing who Charles Mathers was, I took a photograph of him wearing it and then, did a bit of research into who the man is whose life and whose loss inspired this love.  

Charles Mathers of Marsh McLennan was one of three residents of Sea Girt, New Jersey killed on September 11, 2001.   He had lived in Sea Girt with Margaret, his wife of thirty-nine years.  It is where they raised their three children.  It is where he served his community as a member of the Sea Girt Volunteer Fire Department's Fire Company No. 1 for twenty-five years.    

Mr. Mathers was a Managing Director for Marsh Power Group in the World Trade Center's North Tower.  He graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1962 and thereafter served this nation in the United States Navy for six years.  

He loved his family.  He loved his community.  He loved his country.   His life was cut short.  

Sea Girt September 11, 2001 Memorial

May his memory live forever.  

-AK 

 

Keeping the Promise to Never Forget

It has been a while since anything has appeared in this space.  Beginning tomorrow and continuing through Monday  September 11 2023, an admittedly incomplete and most likely underwhelming tribute to one of the innocents murdered on that terrible Tuesday morning shall appear here.   It is my small way to honor those who died.    My small way of making sure I never forget. 

Here is to hoping that neither do you.  

-AK