Fil-Am Families Remember Loved Ones Lost During 9/11

Don Tagala, ABS-CBN News

NEW YORK – It has been 15 years since the 9/11 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, including about 20 Filipinos. The Twin Towers collapsed after two commercial planes hit the World Trade Center buildings.

On Sunday, about 8,000 people, including family and friends of the victims, gathered at the National September 11 memorial plaza.

Four moments of silence were observed at Ground Zero to remember those who died when each plane hit and when each tower fell that started at 8:46 in the morning of September 11, 2001.

Among those honored were Filipino cousins, Maria Theresa Santillan and Judy Hazel Santillan Fernandez, both 27 years old then.

“It’s been 15 years, yet the pain and sorrow is still felt by your family, relatives and friends. We all miss you dearly, kisses to everyone,” said their cousin, Bess Quilino.

Both were employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment bank located at the World Trade Center that lost 658 employees.

About a dozen Santillan family members attend the yearly 9/11 commemoration.

Amelita Fabello-Poral, a Filipino nurse who worked at the NYU Hospital on 9/11, just two blocks away from ground zero says she will always remember September 11 as a day when Filipino nurses in New York stepped up to save lives.

“I’m very happy and proud as a registered nurse. Marami kaming mga Filipino din na mga nurses sa NYU Downtown Hospital, sa Beekman, and we really we’re able to help a lot of patients,” she said.

[I’m very happy and proud as a registered nurse. There are a lot of us Filipino nurses at the NYU Downtown Hospital in Beekman and we really were able to help a lot of patients.]

But for many New Yorkers, the stories of survival, loss of loved ones and the heroism of many will always be remembered not just on September 11 but for the rest of their lives.

 

(Source: ABS-CBN.com)