Remember
Alissa Douglas
Issue date: 10/1/01 Section: Perspectives
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It is hard to imagine, after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, that anyone would be able to return to business as usual. However, Monday September 17th, just 6 days after the terrorist attacks, I sat in the Los Angeles offices of Cantor Fitzgerald determined to help as they returned to business. There were few physical signs that anything had changed. The phones were ringing, people were yelling and stocks were traded. However, on each person’s phone turret, 20 or so lines were dead, those that had connected them to New York, and in the moments of calmness I heard stories of their colleagues and friends that were no longer there.
Originally I was a client of Cantor, but in 2000 when I quit my job, people there continued to be my friends and mentors. I am lucky that most of the people I knew were not in the New York office, but I had spent time with many who were and there are three in particular whose faces remain in my mind.
Val Silver-Ellis, the self proclaimed “princess of darkness” was the queen of practical jokes. As the building was hit, she was up to her usual mischief, instant messaging someone about a new idea.
I had been to Matt Burke’s football playoff party in 1999 and had marveled at his 75 childhood friends from his Brooklyn neighborhood who had gathered to root for the Jets.
Finally, there was Timmy Grazioso, who I met only twice, but whose picture of his two daughters I will never forget.
As they are for everyone, the terrorist attacks and the thought of people I knew jumping from the World Trade Center are terrifying to me. Nonetheless, it has provided me with tremendous perspective and I hope to live a more purposeful life going forward. Being in the Cantor offices with my friends there was extremely healing for me. They were there working with a purpose, working to support the 700 families of those who were gone, and attempting to rise above the disaster. They were back to business, even though it was far from usual.
Originally I was a client of Cantor, but in 2000 when I quit my job, people there continued to be my friends and mentors. I am lucky that most of the people I knew were not in the New York office, but I had spent time with many who were and there are three in particular whose faces remain in my mind.
Val Silver-Ellis, the self proclaimed “princess of darkness” was the queen of practical jokes. As the building was hit, she was up to her usual mischief, instant messaging someone about a new idea.
I had been to Matt Burke’s football playoff party in 1999 and had marveled at his 75 childhood friends from his Brooklyn neighborhood who had gathered to root for the Jets.
Finally, there was Timmy Grazioso, who I met only twice, but whose picture of his two daughters I will never forget.
As they are for everyone, the terrorist attacks and the thought of people I knew jumping from the World Trade Center are terrifying to me. Nonetheless, it has provided me with tremendous perspective and I hope to live a more purposeful life going forward. Being in the Cantor offices with my friends there was extremely healing for me. They were there working with a purpose, working to support the 700 families of those who were gone, and attempting to rise above the disaster. They were back to business, even though it was far from usual.