He said officials plan to place a plaque outside the new library for Michelle, after her mother turned down an offer to do even minimal fundraising. Synagogue President Richard Schorr told the Times-Union the library renaming happened after the recent construction of a new synagogue. Jaffe said the family gave a donation for that project and others at Temple Beth Torah/Tamarac Jewish Center, but synagogue officials renamed the library after she refused their request for more money. In 2003, a Broward County synagogue where Michelle had been a student and Hebrew school teacher dedicated a library in her honor. He worries other people are forgetting about 9/11. He imagines the children Michelle could have had, and the strides she could have made in business. While his grandsons bring him joy, Herman says his loss has intensified in the last decade. In September 2003, Herman and Jaffe's daughter Annete gave birth to a son she named Michael after her big sister. All anyone found of Michelle was a shinbone and an American Express card.
Herman, a 72-year-old veteran who works in the hospitality industry, says he lived in a fog for months after 9/11. Ingrid Jaffe, divorced from Herman and living in Palm Beach County, remembers the call like this: Michelle had phoned her mother after she saw fire coming from the other tower. The 31-year-old insurance executive and Florida native worked in the World Trade Center. His daughter Michelle Goldstein died six months after her wedding. "If I didn't have my other daughter, I don't know what I'd do." "If you want to know the truth, it's gotten worse," Jacksonville resident Rafael "Ralph" Herman says of his grief. That isn't something every family has been able to do. "I have learned that tragedy is not the end of the road," McGarry says, "if you hang tough, keep the faith, and turn the memory of a lost loved one into a motivating, positive factor." He keeps a picture of the Twin Towers as his laptop's screensaver. But McGarry also stops people in military uniforms and thanks them for their service. For him, the horror of 9/11 is like a scab that something pricks from time to time.Įven things like going through airport security remind him of Katie. Since then, McGarry says he's learned to let go of hate and treasure each day. When she woke up after a month, family called it a miracle. A year later, his mother spent the first anniversary of the attacks in a coma after a colon problem. "It's kind of funny, because Katie was always trying to fix me up," the 47-year-old says.Īfter 9/11, McGarry buried himself in his work as a financial trader to try to cope with anger that came with his loss. Now they are married with two boys, 5-year-old Shane and 4-year-old Jonathan. His family reconnected with his late cousin's clan after a 30-year estrangement.Īnother relative spoke to him after Katie's memorial service about a woman named Mariana Price she wanted him to meet. After shock and numbness, blessings came that slowly blunted his grief.
McGarry joined family in Long Island, N.Y., and found out a cousin and more than a dozen friends also died in the attack. He survived, but it was the last Katie's family saw of her. Katie's husband worked in the Trade Center, so they commuted together the next day.
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10, her boss asked her to fill in for him at a conference at Windows on the World, at the top of one of the twin towers. In September 2001, his sister Katie was working at a new job in Connecticut.
He earned a Purple Heart and a Commendation Medal with Valor. He did a tour in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. "He was there because of that day," McGarry said of 9/11.īurke enlisted in 2007 after leaving college early. Kevin Burke was all grown up, and family saw him on TV. On it was a shot of the bride dancing with her 13-year-old nephew Kevin.Ī decade later, that nephew was among soldiers who heard President Barack Obama's speech at Fort Campbell after the mission that left Osama bin Laden dead. Katherine McGarry Noack was dead before her wedding video came in the mail. 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. She is the sister who never will grow old, after her murder in the Sept. She was 30 then, but McGarry still pictures the baby sister he dressed in goalie gear before firing slapshots at her. It took Pat McGarry almost 10 years to watch the video.īut the Ponte Vedra Beach man recently looked at footage of his sister Katie's wedding.