‘ALL I KNOW ABOUT DAD IS WHAT I’VE HEARD’
20 years after the September 11 terror attacks, four children who never really knew their dads who were killed that day tell of the devastating toll on their lives
WHEN terrorists struck America on September 11, 2001, the overwhelming majority of the 2977 people they killed were men, and 88 per cent of parents who died were fathers. Some of these children were so young they have no memory of their dads and 108 were not even born. Here, some of the children of 9/11 tell of growing up without their fathers and what the 20th anniversary of the terrible day means to them.
JOE JONES
Joe Jones, 20, was born seven months after his father Arthur Jones died at the age of 37 and says he has always grieved his loss differently from his three older siblings.
“My family kind of went through all of it and I wasn’t there,” he says.
“It’s always been a lot different for me growing up compared to the rest of my family, emotionally and how I deal with it.” Because he doesn’t have any of his own memories of his father, a futures trader who was killed in the first World Trade Center tower, Joe says the anniversary is harder for his two older sisters and brother. “Probably over the past two or three years, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve thought about it more and realised the impact that it has on our family,” says Jones, a college student from Long Island. “But I feel like it doesn’t affect me as much as it affects my siblings, they definitely think about it a lot more.
“My memories are kind of instilled in me. All I know are like the pictures and stories compared to where they have actual memories with their father so I think it’s got to be much harder for them.”
Jones says despite losing her husband, his mother Carol Francolini has worked hard to teach her children to see the positives in their lives.
“She’s the best and she brought all four of us up and she would never let us see her have a bad day, and I think that’s reflected on me,” he says. “I came to kind of take that personality trait from her, and I think that’s the best thing she could ever give me.”
MARK LYNCH
Mark Lynch was just a year old when his father Robert, a Port Authority worker, was killed.
“He was a civilian first responder so he was outside the towers when the plane hit and he went back to save some people,” says Lynch, 21, from New Jersey.
“We are all really proud of my dad and it’s been a really motivational factor in my life.”
Lynch, who recently graduated from college and is planning to work in education, says his three older brothers and sister have struggled more with the loss of their dad.
“In some ways it’s easier for me because there is not so much to remember there, so it’s not like I have those connections,” he says.
“But then in another way it’s hard for me to not have those connections.”
He says the family is not planning anything special for the 20-year anniversary.
“My family, we like to have more of a calm night in instead of going out,” he says of the date.
“As much as we love the memorial and the services that everyone does it’s more meaningful for us to be with each other
instead of being out with strangers.”