Seven Years Later, Sept. 11 Still Resonates
It’s been seven years since terrorists flew two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in lower Manhattan, a third into the Pentagon and, apparently, attempted to fly a fourth, which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, into an unknown target in Washington, D.C.
But for surviving victims and family members affected by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including a significant number of lawyers, life still isn’t the same.
After spending two-and-a-half years recovering from burns he sustained while riding up to the 104th floor on the elevator as his building exploded, Harry Waizer has returned to his job as a tax lawyer at Cantor Fitzgerald, in the financial services firm’s new midtown Manhattan headquarters, reports the New York Times. His stamina and responsibilities are reduced, however, and he no longer heads the tax department.
“When you are in the hospital for as long as I was and at home for as long as I was, you think about what it is that you want to do with your life,” says Waizer, who is now 57 and never cared much about job titles. The experience, he says, has strengthened his bond with his wife, and his moral compass: “It’s more important for me to be a good person,” he tells the newspaper.
For Alissa Torres, 43, a nonpracticing lawyer whose husband, Eddie Torres, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, personal heartbreak also has had a positive aspect. She has just published American Widow, which she describes as a 210-page “adult, literary comic book,” about her life after Sept. 11, 2001, reports USA Today.
Since that day, her life has often seemed surreal, she tells the newspaper. Initially, she thought her husband might have survived, even though she couldn’t find him. A Colombian immigrant, he had worked his way up from being a delivery boy to a dream job as a currency broker.
But two days after the attacks, she says, the truth hit her hard when she saw the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald crying on television. A week later, her husband’s body was recovered. She was about eight months pregnant with their first child at the time.
“It embodies my grief,” she says of her book. “I can open it and see this grief and remember it and remember Eddie. But I can also close it and live my life in the present tense seven years later and have a happy home for my son.”
Related coverage:
ABA Journal Special Sept. 11 Issue: “Law in the Age of Terror”
