Families of Toms River 9/11 Victims Remember Loved Ones While Life Evolves

Two Toms River residents – Patricia M. Fagan and Robert C. Kennedy -- died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

We checked in with their families to find out how they are doing and how they will mark the 10th anniversary of the day that changed their lives – and the nation's course – forever.

PATRICIA M. FAGAN

Eileen Fagan holds on to her sister's memory – and her favorite worn brown rosary beads. But Patricia Fagan's Passion Pink lipstick is part of a new memorial honoring her and thousands of other people who died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

A devout Catholic, Pat Fagan prayed the rosary each day on the bus while she and Eileen commuted together from their Penny Layne condo to work in Lower Manhattan. An insurance adjuster at Aon Insurance Co., Pat was on the 93th floor of the first tower to fall.

Working in the Bank of New York nearby, Eileen Fagan was evacuated with her colleagues. She recalls running north and was about 12 blocks away when the North Tower fell. Even when she turned and saw the South Tower – Pat's tower – was already gone, she still held out slim hope that her only sibling survived.

It wasn't until Eileen Fagan finally made it home to Toms River at about 10 p.m. and her father, Thomas, asked where was her sister did she realize Pat likely did not get out. Pat had spoken by phone to her ailing father's caretaker after the first plane hit and had told her that employees in her tower had been told to stay in place.

About 18 months later, authorities contacted Eileen Fagan with unbelievable news: Recovery workers had found Pat's purse. The contents were remarkably intact, as detailed in an inventory list and delivered to Eileen in a plastic-sealed package. There were Pat's extra eyeglasses; $162 in her wallet (“Pat loved cash,” Eileen recalled); her trademark Passion Pink-colored lipstick from Macy's; and – best of all – two sets of rosary beads.

One set of beads and the rest of the contents Eileen donated to the recently finished memorial at Ground Zero. The other beads – the ones Pat fingered every day on the bus as she prayed the Hail Mary over and over – Eileen kept those.

“I wish I could say they are pretty, but they are old, ugly brown beads,” Eileen Fagan said, fondly. “She used them every day.”

Eileen Fagan said the devastating event that took her sister also ultimately killed their elderly father.

“He was 93 at the time, but sharp as a tack,” she said. “It just took all the strength right out of him.”

He died in January 2002. Now, Fagan has no immediate family members. She keeps busy.

“You do what you have to do,” said Fagan, 63, who left her bank job after 9/11 and recently retired as assistant principal of St. Dominic's School in Brick. She credits her faith and support from members of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church with helping her get through the last decade. She took over Pat's duties as greeter at the Saturday evening Mass.

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 will help “settle” things, including the Ground Zero memorial, she said.

“Until now, the family room at Ground Zero – it was really a mish mash of everything people would leave,” she said. “The memorial will be done and nicely laid out and put personalities to the people who died.”

Eileen Fagan remembers simple things about Pat – including that she was “technology challenged” – “It was hard for her to even get a plug in the wall,” she laughed. She had a beautiful smile and sweet demeanor. She was well loved by three godchildren, a couple of first cousins, many co-workers and dear friends.

And she wore a light green pantsuit to work on that fateful day.

“She was 5-foot-10 and about 90 pounds – very thin, and she had trouble finding clothes that fit her well,” Eileen Fagan said. “She told me that morning she didn't like the suit because it didn't have any pockets. I told her it looked nice on her.”

Immediately after the attack, Eileen Fagan worried her sister could be hurt in a hospital, but not identified because she wouldn't have had her ID card in her pocket. Months later, Pat's ID card was found in the rubble and reality started to set in. Also found – some of Pat's bone fragments and a green sleeve.

“That's when I knew it was real,” Eileen Fagan said.

Pat's remains were delivered to Eileen in a small package. She was laid to rest in the mausoleum holding her father's coffin.

“That was great because she was an absolutely wonderful daughter,” Eileen Fagan said.

Eileen Fagan plans to attend Saturday's opening of the Empty Sky Memorial at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, as well as Sunday's ceremony for 9/11 survivors at the Ground Zero memorial. On Saturday, she will be at 5 p.m. Mass at St. Joseph's, which is being said in Pat's memory.

ROBERT C. KENNEDY

Maureen P. Kennedy moved away from Toms River about a year after her husband, Robert C. Kennedy, died in the Sept. 11 attack. Memories made it too difficult to stay in the town where the couple had lived for decades. They raised two daughters there and Maureen had been a branch supervisor in the .

Kennedy now lives in Morristown, northern New Jersey – happily four doors away from her oldest daughter, who has two young sons, and about 20 minutes away from her younger daughter and her two sons.

Maureen Kennedy keeps alive the memory of the grandfather the boys, ages 2 to 9, never met.

“They are everything, I tell you,” Maureen Kennedy said. “The really sad thing is I know their grandfather would get such a kick out of them.”

Robert Kennedy, 55, a senior vice president at Marsh & McLennan, was on the 100th floor of the North Tower, which was hit first, but fell second. Because he was a fire warden, Kennedy's family believes he probably tried to get his co-workers out before they perished.

“One of the hardest things to deal with was not knowing what happened to him,” said Cathy Kennedy Miller, Kennedy's oldest daughter.

“I talk about him, but I'm very careful what I say about Sept. 11” to her grandsons, Maureen Kennedy said. “I don't want them growing up being frightened and that's a very frightening thing. I leave that to their parents.”

“We tell them that he's in heaven and he's a hero,” Miller said.

Maureen Kennedy sees traces of her husband in the boys.

“It's definitely in their personalities,” she said. “They are kind and gentle and love to laugh, all of them – and that was their grandfather.”

Miller works in Jersey City, where she has a view of New York City's financial center and One World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower, the under-construction skyscraper being built where the Twin Towers once stood.

“It's a constant reminder,” Miller said. “It's a tough week. This year it will be a little tougher.”

Miller works in the financial field like her father did and was downtown on Sept. 11 when the towers fell.

“Sometimes it seems like yesterday,” she said.

Meredith Andrews, Kennedy's younger daughter, said the 10th anniversary is no different for her than any other day: The fact that her father is gone never changes.

“It's just semantics,” she said. “He's still not going to be here on the 11th anniversary, and he wasn't here on the first anniversary.”

Andrews' oldest son was born 359 days after 9/11; his middle name is Robert. Now that he's in fourth grade, Andrews said he is beginning to realize his grandfather's death was part of something other people know about, but she hasn't told him the whole story yet and he hasn't seen footage.

Andrews said she doesn't tend to tell people who don't already know that she lost her father in 9/11.

“I don't like to make people feel uncomfortable,” she said.

Both sisters say they treasure memories of the weekend before 9/11, when the family celebrated Maureen and Robert Kennedy's wedding anniversary.

“We were so lucky, because we had no animosity, no arguments,” Miller said.

Like Robert Kennedy would have wanted, the family plans to mark the 10th year without their patriarch together. They will attend a memorial event at Marsh & McLennan on Friday and the dedication of the Empty Sky Memorial on Saturday.

On Sunday, they won't go to Ground Zero – but will do so another time.

“Maybe we will go apple picking or something totally unrelated to 9/11,” Miller said.

“I do like to go down there, but not on that day,” Maureen Kennedy said, adding she looks forward to seeing the new memorial. “I know it took a long time, but they really did a wonderful job and I truly appreciate it.”