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On the Story
Giving Thanks Despite Their Loss: One WTC Family's Recovery
Aired November 22, 2001 - 07:53 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All day and night, you see the work still goes on there at the World Trade Center site. It makes you wonder, it makes you think: What is it that you're thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Think about your answer as you watch this from CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On September 11 in an instance, Laurie Hart lost her husband. Her children, Emily, age 5, Weston, 7, Amy, 17, and Jeff, 19, lost their father, John Patrick Hart. He had flown from their home in Danville, California to give a seminar in the World Trade Center. He was in Tower 2 and called home for the last time after the second plane hit.
LAURIE HART, WTT'S VICTIM'S WIDOW: I was crying, saying, Please come home, I just want you home. And he said, "I know you're worried, but I've got really big problems here." And it was a very, very adrenaline-rushed phone call, and the phone went dead.
COHEN: So now, what does a family, who has every right to be ungrateful, every right to be just plain mad, do on a day that's all about giving thanks?
Laurie asked herself that question a few weeks ago.
HART: I said, I have nothing to be thankful for this year. And then, I know that was my outward emotions acting, and it wasn't really how I felt inside, because I'm thankful that we had John in our life. There's always going to be Thanksgiving, because (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We'll memorialize him and give thanks that we had such a beautiful person in our life.
COHEN: Laurie calls John her "knight in shining armor," who rescued her after her first marriage fell apart, and she had to raise Jeff and Amy on her own. She remembers when he asked her out on their first date.
HART: He called, and he said, "You know, what are you doing today?" And I said, Nothing, I said, Do you want to get together? And he said, "Yes," and he says, "Under one condition." And I said, What's that? And he said, "That's if we take Jeff and Amy with us." So from that moment, I knew that he was a keeper. Since I had him in my life for 10 years, there was never a day that went by that he didn't say, "You're beautiful, I love you, and I'm so glad I'm married to."
COHEN: So on this Thanksgiving, even in a house of mourning, there's thanks and celebration.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: So, what do I look like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) you look like Pocahontas.
COHEN: And there's thanks for objects too, for things that remind them of John. While searching for fingerprints to help the police identify John's remains, Laurie found this love letter he had written her years ago.
HART: And it was just like I'm in heaven. And it was almost like my whole body just went limp, like I was just relaxed, like peace. And I was like, thank you.
COHEN: But then, along with the peace, there's anger at the men who murdered her husband and thousands of others. One of John's best friends wrote this poem.
HART: "We are the United States of America. We extend our hands in peace to those who need. We accept the huddled masses from other nations. We provide freedom and opportunity to those willing to take it. We do not harm without cause. Again, why would anyone do such things?"
And when I read that, that's the paragraph that sticks in my head the most, you know.
COHEN: Laurie says in the end, it's been such a mixture of emotions. Every day life continues amid sometimes unbearable pain. John left a huge unfillable void, but he also left children who give her tender moment.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I'm a very fine turkey, and I sing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) song, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
COHEN: And if there's any Thanksgiving lesson to be learned from her life this fall, Laurie Hart says this is it: Be thankful every day for what you have, because it might be swept away from you tomorrow.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Danville, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Good thoughts to keep every day of the year.
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