In Memorium: Angela Susan Perez, 9/11 Victim

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Eight years have passed since Al Qaeda terrorists used airplanes as weapons of mass destruction. Nearly 3,000 people died at the Twin Towers in New York City. Angela Susan Perez was one of those people.

Angela was the “cool aunt and baby sister.” She was a mother of three. Last year, her son wrote this:

Mom, I miss you so much. My graduation is just around the corner, and it’s going to be tough to walk down that aisle without you in the crowd, but I know you’ll be watching me. You will always be in my heart. Love u an’ miss u.

*** Posted by your little boy all grown up on 2008-02-28 ***

Angela was a best friend:

6 years later … the tears still flow … missing you never gets easier … cherished friend forever … few friends leave such an impression … you are truly one of the best friends I ever had! You will never be one of many victims to me … that day was one of the worst days for our country, a tragedy for New York, but it was the day that my best friend’s passing left a pain in my heart that will never go away…. Susan, I will always miss you and love you…. Keep laughing, my friend…. It’s smiles like yours that make the world go around…. May god walk beside you for eternity….

Love ya lots, girl,
Anna

She was 35. She was living her life, doing her job, raising her children, being a friend. Her life mattered. She deserves to be remembered and honored.

Angela Perez worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. Here is what Wikipedia says about the fate of those in the towers on that day:

Cantor Fitzgerald’s New York City office, on the 101st-105th floors of One World Trade Center (2-6 floors above the impact zone of a hijacked airliner), was destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees (all of the employees in the office that day), or about two-thirds of its workforce, considerably more than any other of the World Trade Center tenants or the New York City Police Department and New York City Fire Department. The company was able to bring its trading markets back online within a week, and CEO and chairman Howard Lutnick, whose brother was among those killed, vowed to keep the company alive.

On September 19, Cantor Fitzgerald made a pledge to distribute 25 percent of the firm’s profits for the next five years, and committed to paying for ten years of health care, for the benefit of the families of its 658 former Cantor Fitzgerald, eSpeed, and TradeSpark employees (profits which would otherwise have been distributed to the Cantor Fitzgerald partners).[citation needed] In 2006 the company completed its promise, having paid a total of $180 million (and an additional $17 million from a relief fund run by Lutnick’s sister, Edie).[citation needed]

Time goes by, memories, especially bad memories, get shelved and put away. But for some people, they cannot forget their loss. Nor do they want to. For families and friends of those lost on 9/11, forgetting is more awful than remembering. And so they look at the picture, they see the holes where the buildings were and they remember. They get married and their mother cannot see the day of joy. They have children who have no grandma. They need a shoulder to cry on, but mom is gone.

Angela Susan Perez, like the hundreds with her in the top of that Tower, were innocent. They were walking, not fully realized, potential. They had a future that was taken away through no fault of their own.

On this day, it’s a privilege to honor Angela Perez. Her life mattered. It still matters. She leaves a legacy of family and friends who love and miss her. Thank you for honoring the lost by remembering. It’s the least we can do.

More.

Dale Challener Roe: The 2996 Project

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