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CNN Sunday Morning

Families of Those Lost in WTC Attack Cope With the Loss

Aired September 30, 2001 - 10:53   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: As the mayor has indicated over the past few days, many of the victims in the 9/11 suicide hijackings will never be found and that's leaving an even bigger vacuum in the lives of their loved ones left behind. It also makes saying good-bye that much more difficult. CNN's Gary Tuchman talked with two parents who remember their son so well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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)

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