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American Morning

Interview of Linda Perry Thorpe, Widow of 9/11 Victim

Aired March 11, 2002 - 09:13   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: For Linda Perry Thorpe, the past six months have been an emotional roller coaster. On September 11th, her husband, Rick, was on the 89th floor of the World Trade Center tower number two.

Like so many others left behind on that day, Linda kept hope alive, and we first spoke with her four days later, on September 15th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDA PERRY THORPE, WIDOW OF 9/11 VICTIM: I'm just praying for God, praying for a miracle, and I'm really here today to tell, you know, everyone to continue praying, not only for Rick Thorpe, but for all the other 4,700 people that are missing out there. This is just a horrific tragedy, and we need to fight back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And Linda Perry Thorpe joins us -- with us this morning to tell how she and her 21-month-old daughter, Alexis, are doing, six months later.

Good to see you, again.

THORPE: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: How are you doing?

THORPE: It's been extremely hard. It's feeling as though I've aged 50 years, and I'm living the life of an elderly widow. I live day to day. I can't think about one day out, one week out, let alone one year out. You know, all our dreams as a family have been shattered, and are gone. It's just been an emotional roller coaster, feelings of shock, denial, which even six months out, I sometimes still feel like I'm in that stage of denial, I think this sort of death is something very difficult to put your hands on. I mean, he left to work in the morning, and didn't come home.

His remains have not been found. Not having a body makes it just that much more difficult, and trying to keep a household for my daughter that's somewhat stable, with some sense of normalcy, in the first few months have been difficult in trying to, you know, take care of her. And that's really where my focus has been, because I know that's what he would want. ZAHN: You talked about the shock and the denial. Where does the anger come in?

THORPE: I've had very little anger. I guess I just feel as though -- where is that going to get me? My anger did come in when I first visited ground zero, and it looked like the end of the world. I don't think the media pictures, TV, really gave it justice until you really went down there and saw it for yourself. And that's when the anger came. But aside from that, it's really just been more, just, depression. I mean, to lose your soul mate, how does one go on? And I just keep saying to myself, well, he would want me to go on, and you know, 3,000 lives were lost that day, and I guess we all have to believe that, you know, our loved ones would want us to go on and not suffer the way, unfortunately, they probably all suffered on that day of 9/11.

ZAHN: At the beginning of the interview, we showed a small part of the first conversation you and I had together, where you talked about your prayer to keep hope alive, and you wanted Americans to maintain that sense of hope. How many months did it take for you to finally accept the tragedy?

THORPE: I don't think I have fully accepted it.

ZAHN: Even in a personal way.

THORPE: Yeah.

ZAHN: Before you could even accept Rick's loss.

THORPE: Yeah. I mean, it was two weeks out when we finally realized, medically, okay, he's not coming back. We went forward and prepared the memorial service. But again, there's still days where I'm like, did this really happen? It's very, very difficult, and I wonder will I ever truly accept it. It's the kind of loss that I would not want anyone to ever have to experience like the loved ones of all these 3,000 victims from that day.

ZAHN: Last time we spoke, too, your daughter was having a horrible, horrible time. Very confused by what was going on, and she is only 21-months-old now. How is she doing?

THORPE: She doesn't quite understand. She looks at pictures, and she says "daddy, daddy," and she kisses them. In the beginning, she kept wondering, you know, she would be looking like, where is he, thinking he's at work. But now, I've sort of -- slowly telling her that daddy is in heaven, and that's in the sky. So, a lot of times, when I say "daddy," she points up to the sky. I watched my wedding video for the first time just a few days ago, and she -- you know, I was crying, and she then started crying, and said, Daddy, daddy, where is daddy? I think it is going to be a little while yet, because she's so young before I really fully explain to her.

ZAHN: I know these day have all blurred together because you have, obviously, felt so much pain and confusion, plus the challenge of keeping your family's finances together. Is there a thought you would like to close with this morning as the rest of America marks this 6-month period since September 11th?

THORPE: Just, I guess, for everyone to, you know, remember those 3,000 victims, and they were all heroes. The firemen, the policemen, but all of those in the trade center that day who were sitting at their desks, who went to work, to do their job. They're all heroes. And we must all honor them. And again, to all the other families who did lose loved ones, you know, just keep remembering that they want us to go on, they want us to be happy. And it's very difficult, but we must do our best to remember that, and we all still have a lot to live for.

ZAHN: Well, you have been a tower of strength throughout this. It's been an honor to have met you.

THORPE: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Linda Perry Thorpe. Best of luck to you, your daughter, and the rest of your family. Thank you for joining us this morning.

THORPE: Thank you, thank you.

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