Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

America's New War: One Family Copes With Loss

Aired September 30, 2001 - 07:56   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Sun up at Ground Zero. Now, Day 19 since the attacks back on the 11th of September. And a difficult question for so many in New York - how do you say goodbye when there's no one there? As odd as that may sound, thousands likely will face the question in the awful aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center. CNN's Gary Tuchman talked with one family still trying to say goodbye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the day Jonathan Cappello would have turned 24. Instead, it's the day his parents and hundreds of others remembered his life.

CLAUDIA CAPPELLO, VICTIMS' MOTHER: Jonathan loved, loved life from the time they handed him to me on September 29. He went to bed happy. He woke up happy. And everything was happy in between.

TUCHMAN: But on September 11, Jonathan was on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center when it imploded. He was working as an international bond trader.

C. CAPPELLO: Everybody said we're supposedly at war or we're starting a war. I did not send my son to war. I sent him to work.

TUCHMAN: Jonathan was precocious as a child.

BOB CAPPELLO, VICTIM'S FATHER: Remember that, how he used to be able to get out of his crib.

TUCHMAN: The youngest of three brothers, who idolized his two older siblings who doted on him. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do after college. But three months ago, received a job at Cantor Fitzgerald. He was thrilled with the job and in love with his girlfriend, Dana.

B. CAPPELLO: Yes, put that one up there too.

TUCHMAN: For more than a week, Claudia and Bob Cappello kept the faith that maybe their son was alive under the rubble. He's still missing. But his mother says she has now accepted Jonathan's fate after feeling her son's spirit visit her.

C. CAPPELLO: It was not wings floating around. He told me - he says, "Mom, it's enough. I'm here and I'm whole. I came with my body." And for that I was grateful. And that's when I knew it.

TUCHMAN: The day before his memorial service, Jonathan's parents, brothers, other relatives and girlfriend, Dana, watched a video of him from his brother's wedding for the first time since the disaster.

JONATHAN CAPPELLO, VICTIM: My dizzy is short and sweet. I want to thank Rob for giving me a sister.

TUCHMAN: It was painful for them to watch but it's something they felt the need to do. Jonathan's father, who shares his son's birthday, can't stop thinking about his final time speaking with his boy.

B. CAPPELLO: As he said everyday to me, "Thanks for the ride, Pop. I'll see you tonight."

C. CAPPELLO: The last thing I said to him and the last thing he said to me, what we say to each other every day, every night for 23 years - I go, "I love you Johnny B" and he says, "I love you, Pumpkin. You're my woman." That's the last thing I said. It was 11:00 at night. That was it. That was it.

TUCHMAN: And this is how they spent Johnny's birthday.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Garden City, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: And that sad and tragic scene played out in so many locations in the city on a daily basis.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com