Family They
saw the towers collapse. They thought their loved ones could be in
there. They waited.Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, fathers, mothers - all missing, all with families hoping for a phone call. Hours seemed like days for Theresa Santiago as she waited in Port Jervis to hear word on her husband, Joe, who was working in World Trade Center 5 when the attacks occurred. God couldn't take Joe, too, she thought, remembering her slain daughter Jennifer, a murder victim who died in 1999.  Aaron
Santiago was home in Sparrowbush when the call came. Joe was safe.
He had made it across the river to Hoboken as the buildings collapsed
around him. He borrowed a cell phone and called his family.Crying tears of relief and joy, Theresa Santiago said she couldn't wait to see him, to throw her arms around him. Hours became days for Theresa Regan in Pine Bush as she waited to hear about her husband, FDNY firefighter Don Regan, whose elite Rescue 3 unit was at the World Trade Center when the towers collapsed.  Her
sons, Shane and Jimmy, and her daughter Jill waited with her. Her
youngest boy, Peter, a U.S. Marine, flew home from California. Theresa
Regan stopped watching the television after the first day. Her parents
sat vigil with her. Her siblings arrived.The call never came. Don Regan, husband, father, hero, had his memorial service Oct. 8 at the Church of the Infant Saviour. Their faces streaked with tears, Theresa Regan and her four children walked arm in arm from the church. Timothy O'Connor © 2001 Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., all rights reserved. |