9/11 Remembrance -- Andrew Alameno -- Project 2996

The memorial pages dedicated to the victims of September 11, 2001, speak to the lives of the 2,996 people who died that day, but mostly they speak to their loss and to what they are not here to witness today.

One of the memorial pages for Andrew Alameno, 37, who worked as a trader in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, certainly is like that:

Andy you are missed and I think about you often. God Bless your family.

Andy, I wish we had the chance to get together with the families like we talked about. I think of you often and hope you did not suffer. God Bless you and your family forever. Your buddy Rich from Mt. Saint Mary's.

As is this statement, from another memorial page about him:

Andy, I miss you so much words cannot describe it. You were my cousin and I love you. Sally, Joe, and Nina look great, but I know they miss you more than anything in this whole world. Joe looks so much like you, he is adorable. Rest in peace.

It’s the kind of thing that we should remember today and always, right in the center of our being, and keep remembering, right next to our thoughts about where the kids have to be today or what project deadline is looming or what time our favorite team is playing football on Sunday…because there are 2,996 people who died on September 11th who don’t have the opportunity to have those kinds of thoughts today, who haven’t seen their kids grow up, who never got to grow older with their wives or husbands or see their fiancé on their wedding day … and who never got the chance to become the people they now would be.

Mourn their loss and honor their loss and remember their loss. It’s the only way to keep this day alive for years to come.

With that, let’s remember Andrew Alameno, in a profile written by William Kleinknecht, in THE STAR-LEDGER, found here:

The sun was rising in a clear blue sky and America was still at peace when Andrew Alameno of Westfield said goodbye to his wife, Sally, and their two children on the morning of Sept. 11. He headed for his job as a money market trader at the World Trade Center.

Sally Alameno said she had no idea she would never see her husband again. The news that her world was turning upside down came to her within minutes after the first hijacked plane struck the North Tower of the trade center.

"Someone called me on my cell phone as I was driving my son home from kindergarten and told me what happened," she said. "I raced home and turned on the television."

What she and millions of other television viewers saw were flames licking out of the upper floors of the North Tower. Mr. Alameno, 37, worked as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a firm on the 105th floor of the tower, above the inferno.

After the collapse of the buildings, Sally Alameno's brother was in Manhattan and went through all the crisis centers and filed a missing person report, until the family gradually gave up hope.

Sally Alameno said her husband's chief hobbies were his two children, Joseph, 5, and Nina, 2, and his regular golf outings. But she said what distinguished him most as a man was how much he was loved by others.

"He was the most wonderful father," Sally said, "and loved by everyone. I can't believe how many people have come by here and been in touch with us."

Read about other victims at Project 2996.