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American Morning

Revisiting Ground Zero Opens Old Wounds For Some

Aired December 11, 2001 - 08:10   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The terror attacks of 9-11 created thousands of individual tragedies. Let's turn now to two women whose lives have changed obviously quite dramatically.

Carie LeMack's mother was on board one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Her group, Families of September 11th, is now helping people get aid, support and money. We first met Nilsa Rivera back in October when she told us that after losing her husband, she had received little or no assistance.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

NISLA RIVERA, WIDOW OF WTC VICTIM: I had to keep going back. There hasn't been a follow-up system. You know, things that I have applied for have not been met, and I have to keep following up, and there should be a system where people should call and say, have you been taken care of; is there any other way that I can help you.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ZAHN: Nilsa Rivera and Carie LeMack join us now. Thank you very much for being with us on this very difficult day. You described what your situation was about a month ago. Have things gotten any better as you mark the date three months later that you lost your husband, along of course 3,043 other lives being snuffed out.

RIVERA: I was lucky enough to be called by a wonderful woman by the name of Mindy Bostein (ph) at New York State General Attorney's office. And thank goodness for her, she has helped me follow up on some of my claims and some of the issues that I was having trouble with. And that was in itself a great help. I'm still struggling though. I'm still paving the pavement. I'm still out there presenting my bills and going to the different charitable organizations and pleading my case and my needs.

ZAHN: Have you gotten any financial assistance at all?

RIVERA: I have to say that the Salvation Army has been good. I presented my bills and they've made copies and have issued checks to the bills institutions.

ZAHN: And Carie, you find yourself in a very tough spot. Your mother was divorced ...

CARIE LEMACK, DAUGHTER OF AA FLIGHT 11 VICTIM: Yes.

ZAHN: ... and as I understand it, now you and your sister are responsible for some of her bills.

LEMACK: That's correct.

ZAHN: What are you responsible for?

LEMACK: Everything. We pay everything that if she had been married a spouse would pay. But because we are non-dependent children, we fall out of the box of where a lot of the aid is issued.

ZAHN: So what's going to happen to you if you don't get help?

LEMACK: We stand to lose our childhood home among other things, which is why we formed - one of the reasons why we formed Families of September 11th. The group's mission is to promote the interest of the victims' families, as well as to advocate public policy to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks. And one of the ways you promote the interest is to make sure that the aid organizations give out the money as they promised the American public that they would.

ZAHN: Have you and your sister gotten anything?

LEMACK: We have gotten some things and ...

ZAHN: Not enough though to save your family home.

LEMACK: Not enough to pay the mortgage every month, but we're still trying. We've worked with Mindy Bostein (ph) at Attorney General Spencer's (ph) office and the attorney general has told us that he's going to create a common application so that people don't have to fill out tens and maybe even hundreds of forms to try to get the aid. Another thing that the attorney general is working on is a common database of all of the aid organizations so that people will have some way to figure out what is out there to help them because right now it's a mess. It's really difficult. It's basically a full- time job.

ZAHN: I know it's important for you to bring along some pictures ...

LEMACK: Yes.

ZAHN: ... of your mom during some happier times and ...

LEMACK: Yes.

ZAHN: ... we're going to share those with the audience right now. I think ...

LEMACK: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... there are some pictures of when your mother was holding you as an infant and your sister as well. There is a picture taken ... LEMACK: That's an embarrassing picture.

ZAHN: That was much later. You weren't a baby there.

LEMACK: That was ...

ZAHN: You were well past toddler (INAUDIBLE) there.

LEMACK: That was my grandmother's 80th birthday. We went on a cruise with her, and as you can tell we had a lot of fun.

ZAHN: There you are.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMACK: That's my sister and my mom.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Describe to us the indignity that you and your sister have suffered as you've gone through this process.

LEMACK: Well I think our family, like so many others that we've spoken to that have joined Families for September 11th have fallen through the cracks. Like I said in our case we're not dependent children. Many people say well why don't you just get a job and pay for your mom's bills. Well I didn't know I was going to have a mortgage to have to deal with on September 10th. I've seen same sex partners not get the benefits for surviving partner because legally they weren't able to get married, even though they may have lived together for many, many years.

People who have been engaged, who had mortgages together, homes together - they don't - they also fall through those cracks. Families of September 11th wants to be able to help, so that's why we've created a Web site and we also have a 800 number that people can call. It's 800-568-8399.

ZAHN: Repeat that one more time. 1-800 ...

LEMACK: It's 1-800-568-8399 and it's here to help people.

ZAHN: After you leave here, both of you are headed down to the World Trade Center where a memorial will be held, then the scene will be repeated across the country, of course at 8:46 signifying the time the first jet took out the north tower. I know you talked about the difficulty of going back the last time for the very first memorial. Do you have any sense of what you're going to be thinking about?

RIVERA: It's very hard for me to go back to ground zero site. That just opens up old wounds when we're trying to heal. Unfortunately the world doesn't know that, you know, the novelty wears down and people are getting ready for the holidays and everyone is decorating for Christmas and we're still here stuck trying to pick up the pieces of our shattered lives, and we can't celebrate. We're not going to have a Christmas because our loved one is not with us. So to go back to ground zero site, it's just reminding me personally of that terror that occurred September 11th.

ZAHN: Carie, do you have any idea ...

LEMACK: The first time ...

ZAHN: ... how you'll feel when you return?

LEMACK: ... when we went to ground zero the first time, it was my mom's 51st birthday and my sister and I looked for some sort of signs that my mom was here, but I just don't find it. I don't see her there. I know that physically what remains of her is there. But it's very difficult and I agree completely that I can't hang my mom's stocking up on the mantle this year because I just don't know what I would put in it. So I think that for many of the families, the holidays are a time to get through and not to celebrate and we're going to have to learn to live our new lives that include this chapter.

ZAHN: Well our thoughts are with you and the other families that have suffered so horribly and we'd love both of you to come back within the next couple of weeks and let us know whether you've made any progress and whether you feel any new security at all.

LEMACK: Thank you very much.

ZAHN: Thank you again for joining us.

RIVERA: Paula, every month is a struggle. Every month there are new issues that we have to deal with, and I don't know how long it's going to take for us to have some sort of normalcy in our life. But this does help us relay the message to the world that what happened on September 11th is by a long shot not over.

LEMACK: And I would like to add that that's why we have this group Families of September 11th is to make sure that what we have suffered through no one else in America has to go through again. So please if there are any family members out there, to contact us at the Web site, FamiliesofSeptember11th.org or the 1-800 number, 568-8399.

ZAHN: Good luck ...

LEMACK: Thank you.

ZAHN: ... to both of your families. Thank you very much for being with us this morning on this very painful day.

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