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CNN Live At Daybreak
Mothers Keep Memories of Fathers Alive For Their Children
Aired March 11, 2002 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Many of the men killed on September 11 left children behind. Their mothers cling to hope they can keep memories alive, and in some cases teach young babies about fathers they never got a chance to know.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This baby will never know her father. This five-year-old will strive every day to remember him.
RACHEL QUIGLEY: Aren't you (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to the toes?
COHEN: They are the daughters of Patrick Quigley, who died on United Flight 175.
On that morning on September 11, their mother, Patty, was seven months pregnant with Leah at home, watching the news, desperately trying to remember which flight her husband had taken from their home in Boston to Los Angeles.
PATTY QUIGLEY, SEPTEMBER 11 WIDOW: And it turns out to be that it was the second plane that I saw go into the Tower. Rachel and I went upstairs to her bedroom, and I told her that Daddy's plane had crashed into a building.
And then she said to me, "What happened?" And I said, "Well, it blew up in flames." And she said, "Is he alive?" And I said, "No, he is dead." And we cried for a little while together.
COHEN: And since then, the Quigley family has set out to remember Patrick every way they can.
R. QUIGLEY: This is my mom and this is my dad.
COHEN: There are the Christmas pictures, the first ballet recital. And Rachel remembers how her father danced on vacation in Hawaii.
R. QUIGLEY: I think we have a picture of daddy. There's daddy.
COHEN: They still cry sometimes when Rachel wants to know why. COHEN: To help Rachel, Patty got her together with other children in the Boston area, who had also lost a parent on September 11. And for herself, she befriended other women in her situation.
Susan Rettic lost her husband, David, on September 11. She had a baby in November. Haven Fife, whose husband, Carlton, died that day, is expecting her baby in May.
P. QUIGLEY: It just makes it easier to know that somebody can totally understand without even saying very much.
COHEN: Understand that a mother's mission is to make sure that the father who left forever is never forgotten, and Rachel helps her mother remember too.
P. QUIGLEY: Patrick just comes out of Rachel. Her personality and the way that she looks with his dark eyes and olive skin, that's one way that I just see him all the time through her.
COHEN: And in a few years, Rachel will hopefully help her little sister.
P. QUIGLEY: I'm trying to just keep that in mind, so then maybe we can tell Leah about dad.
COHEN: Tell Leah, that even though this is the only picture her father ever saw of her, he loved her very much.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Wellesley, Massachusetts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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