TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Helping Families Counter Attack

Tribune photo by JAMIE PILARCZYK

Mary Trant holds a photo of her son, Danny, who was working as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald inside the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JAMIE PILARCZYK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 2, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - Patti Schwartz knew where her family was on Sept. 11, 2001.

Her daughter, Jennifer Levine, was by her side in West Hempstead, N.Y. Her son, Andrew, was out of the city and her husband, Mark, an emergency medical technician, was not scheduled to be working near downtown Manhattan.

Then Mark called.

"'I'm down here,' he said, and I asked, 'Where are you?'" Patti Schwartz recounted. "He said he was downtown, near the towers. He said he could see things falling out of the windows. It was people jumping out. I told him I loved him."

That was the last time she talked to him. Mark Schwartz died at the World Trade Center. He was 50.

On Christmas Day 2003, Patti Schwartz moved to Brandon.

Last week, she came to the American Red Cross in Tampa for a workshop hosted by Voices of September 11th, or VOICES, a nonprofit advocacy group that connects survivors of the terrorist attacks as well as families and co-workers of the nearly 3,000 victims.

VOICES has hosted more than 50 workshops nationwide, helping people sift through photos, Mass cards, awards and mementos. At the Red Cross on June 25, the group scanned, photographed and cataloged the items people brought in bags, boxes and crates.

It also recorded the stories of Schwartz and others for a digital archive called 9/11 Living Memorial.

Among the mementos that Mary Trant brought to the workshop were photos of her son Danny as a boy and as an adult. Some had become tinted over the years.

"I've been crying for two weeks. I can't look at three pictures without crying," said Trant of Winter Haven, who came to the event with her daughter Sally, of Carrollwood. "Something like this makes you realize there are other people with the same loss."

Danny Trant, a 40-year-old father of three, was a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center. His body was never found.

"Danny was special," his mother said. "Having nine kids, every one is special, but Danny was handsome and charming. He was a major attraction anywhere he went."

Elsie Rosado's necklace holds a charm that belonged to her daughter Maria as well as a heart-shaped charm bearing a photo of her daughter.

Maria Ramirez, 25, was the office manager for an architectural firm in a building next to the World Trade Center. She was in the elevator when the towers fell. Ramirez died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

"Mother's Day 2001 was the last time I saw Maria," said her mother, who lives in Ocoee. "We talked every day on the phone, but Mother's Day was the time I was with her, seeing her, loving her, holding her.

"All she did that day was to get up and go to work," she said. "I want those ordinary people like her to know they were loved."

Photos of Elsie Rosado's necklace charms will become part of the memorial.

VOICES launched the living memorial on Sept. 11, 2006, said founding director Mary Fetchet, whose son Brad, 24, was an equities trader in the World Trade Center.

"Seven years later, or even five years, people are more capable of reflecting on the life of the person that was lost," said Fetchet, a social worker who began the VOICES project from her Connecticut home. "Families who start the project give other people the ability to start talking about it themselves.

"It gives them an opportunity to document the life of the person lost from many different perspectives," she said. "It really gives them the opportunity to tell their own personal story."

On her group's Web site, www.voicesofsept11.org, personalized Web pages act as memorials for her son and the other victims.

Fetchet, who has collected information for more than 1,400 victims, survivors and first responders, hopes to have a comprehensive Web site ready for the estimated 2011 opening of the World Trade Center Memorial Museum at ground zero.

"This has made me tremendously grateful to see there are a bunch of people who can absolutely understand," Sally Trant said of the VOICES project. "To lose them in the way we did, it's a part of history."

LEAVING A TRIBUTE

Voices of September 11th, or VOICES, is seeking memorabilia related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks for its digital database, as well as donations to continue the project. To participate, call 1-866-505-3911, e-mail email@voicesofsept11.org or go to www.911livingmemorial.org.

VOICES has expanded its work to include advocacy for security preparedness and terrorism prevention. It supports those affected by terrorism worldwide and promotes cross-cultural understanding. In 2005, through its Building Bridges project, VOICES sent stuffed animals to families of the victims of the Beslan, Russia, school siege. In 2006, it coordinated an exchange between youngsters in Afghanistan and the United States that resulted in a photo exhibit detailing both cultures. For information, go to www.voicesofsept11.org.

Reporter Jamie Pilarczyk can be reached at (813) 259-7661 or jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT