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CNN Live At Daybreak

Victim's Families Struggling to Get Charity Money

Aired November 09, 2001 - 06:23   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: For many of the families of the September 11 attacks, asking for help has been a humbling experience.

CNN's Peter Viles introduces us to one family that's trying to get on with their life in Norwalk, Connecticut.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hours after the attacks, when the commuter trains pulled into Norwalk, Connecticut on that terrible night in September, there were nine missing from Norwalk, nine who never made it home. One was Ron Gilligan, husband, father of three, Little League coach.

LIZ GILLIGAN. WIFE OF TERRORISM VICTIM: The telephone rang and I answered the phone. And it was my 17-year-old daughter. She was hysterical. I really couldn't understand what she was saying. She just kept screaming, "My dad, my dad!" And I said, "Ashley, what's the problem, what's the matter?" And she said, "Turn the TV on." So I dropped the phone, and ran in, and I turned the TV on. And there's a plane sticking out of my husband's building.

VILES: So ended a romantic adventure that began 18 years ago, when Ron and Liz Gilligan came to America from England. And so began a hellish and humbling journey for this mother of three.

GILLIGAN: I am a very proud person. I don't relish having to apply for charity and all of those things. I've never had to do it in my life. And so it was very hard.

VILES: Harder than she could have known, because all that generosity, those benefit concerts, the outpouring to the Red Cross, has only resulted in a confusing maze of red tape, bewildering to a young widow.

GILLIGAN: It's very frustrating. It's -- I feel angry because the information to access all these charities is not filtering down clearly to the families. The United Way, if you contact them, they pass you again to the Red Cross. It's kind of like you get passed around.

VILES (on camera): Geography is also a challenge to many of these families, which are spread across the New York suburbs. The best resource available to them is Pier 94 in Manhattan, where so many of the charities have set up shop. But for Liz Gilligan and other widows here in Norwalk, that's a 90 mile round trip.

(voice-over): She has received some aid and she's grateful for it. Three months of living expenses from the Red Cross, just under $2,000 from two other charities, $5,000 from her husband's employer, Cantor Fitzgerald, where he was a systems administrator. But she is tired and confused. How can she best provide for her family if she doesn't understand how those dozens of charities work?

GILLIGAN: Who's monitoring the funds? Who's making sure that it does go directly to the families?

VILES: The Gilligans live modestly in Norwalk. 17-year-old Ashley wants to start college next fall. She knows that might not be possible. Ainsley is 10 years old. And Darren, the youngest, who taught his father the rules of baseball is eight.

GILLIGAN: My husband and I wanted to raise our children, not necessarily to be nuclear physicists, but just to be decent human beings. And what keeps me going is that it's now my sole role to do that. And I'm not going to let him down.

VILES: Liz Gilligan says dinner time is the hardest time for her family, when the trains from New York pull in and those nine from Norwalk are still gone.

Peter Viles, CNN, Norwalk, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We wish the Gilligan family well in their difficult journey.

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