P000564
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 11:28 AM
Fund
Yesterday I saw American flags that were so hard to get last year are now selling in food stores in the area at half price. Sweat shirts and other flag items also have been reduced. I stopped and looked and started to cry. Is America forgetting or has everyone gotten all the flags they needed and wanted. That thought was with me all day yesterday. Is the country forgetting to some degree what happened to our sons and daughters on September 11th?
My son was killed at the World Trade Center. We are his parents and he has both grandparents and a brother. He was married and had three children. What of our lives?
As parents we grief each day. We struggle through the day. Tasks that were simple have now become projects. Projects have become impossible to do. As a small business owner my business is down because who wants a crying salesman at their doors. Pills now get me through the day. Pills get me through the nights. This is what our lives have become.
We go for counselors and also a support group each week.
My doctor wants me to see a psychologist to review the pills I now take. One of them, he thinks, gives me nightmares. Just try to picture you child is in a glass building. There is fire all around him. He is trying to reach out to me and I try to reach him. The skin is burning off his face. Try that and see how you would feel in our shoes.
I feel that my business that I have will die because of the pain that I have. I have been told a few things about parents and there children.
First that the second year is worst than the first year. They also say that it takes about five years till you get to your new normal. No one knows what effect 9/11 will have on us. There has never been anything like this so who knows. I am almost sixty and this is my life. There are days where we want to just crawl in to a hole and die. We go on because we have wife's and other children who without I would not go on.
We are the forgotten people because we are not the next of kin. We are hurting and over time we will still have our pain. Parents are always parents. What we want we cannot have. We want our children back.
My son said to me "don't worry about your old age. If you need me I will be there for you'. I laughed when he said that a few years ago."
What we have is our ruined lives ahead of us. We will need help for the rest of our lives. Parents will need medical help over many years. What we need will cost money. Where will it come from? What do I do when my business fails because I am not the same person as I was before September 11th?
The Victims Compensation fund should look at parents and provide us with money to help us over the years to come. We need this. Money should not be taken away from our children's wives.
Right now you have caused us to a lifetime of pain and suffering. If the fund does not address our needs then when our son's wife signs up for the plan we as parents will not be getting any help for the years we have left.. We the parents are mostly in our 60"s. We do not have time for lawsuits. We need help.
Thanks for listen to us.
Individual Comment
Morganville, NJ