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.       

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-AK