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CNN Live At Daybreak

September 11 Also Evoked Positive Changes

Aired March 11, 2002 - 05:38   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: We have all heard stories about how people's lives have changed after September 11, usually because of injuries suffered or loved ones lost. But for some life changed not because of what they lost, but because of what they gained, in values and by simply looking at life differently.

CNN's Ann McDermott tells us that side of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember the terror?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got another tower collapsed. Another tower collapsed.

MCDERMOTT: Then the rage, then the sorrow, and then the ache to go home.

Home. That's where Robin Gottschall is heading. She is leaving Los Angeles for San Francisco for her family.

ROBIN GOTTSCHALL, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: You know, it is home, it's familiar and, yes, it's safe.

MCDERMOTT: She hadn't planned this. What she had planned to do was move to New York, but if something bad happened again, well, she would be too far from home.

This may be over, Gottschall's work in the entertainment industry, but in San Francisco, she'll be close to her mom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was here in the '89 earthquake. I know what that feels like to be separated from somebody you really love and you think you are going to die, and I'm glad she is going to be closer.

MCDERMOTT: Home. Sometimes it's in the unlikeliest of places like a California hair salon, where these three old friends gather, the Los Angeles stylist, the New York designer and her businessman boyfriend. They were all together in Manhattan the day the world changed, the day they changed.

GINA CAMARILLO, NEW YORK DESIGNER: You know, it was -- it was so scary.

MCDERMOTT: Marco Robles has had problems with crowds since then.

MARCO ROBLES, HAIR STYLIST: I don't know what it was. I guess panic attack.

MCDERMOTT: But all three say they have changed, all three say they're closer.

MARCO ARRIETA, NEW YORK BUSINESSMAN: It makes you realize that there is more to life than just being at the offices, you know, 60, 70 hours a week.

MCDERMOTT: Sure they still all work hard. Here, they get ready for a fashion show of Gina Camarillo's Camisole Design, but this show is for charity. And more important, it gives the old friends a chance to be together again, catch up on gossip, talk about how they have changed, talk about how they have gotten stronger.

CAMARILLO: Don't you agree Marc...

ARRIETA: Yes, I do.

CAMARILLO: ... that you think you can do anything now? I mean, we almost feel like we are invincible now?

ARRIETA: Yes.

MCDERMOTT: And when they are together, it's like they have come home again. There are all kinds of ways to go home.

Ann McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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