All Grown Up, Children Of 9/11 Victims Share Their Stories
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- On Sunday, the families of those killed ten years ago on September 11th will gather to honor their loved ones. Among them, those who were only children when they suddenly lost a parent.
Now teenagers, some of them are contributing to the memorial by revealing something personal from their past, CBS 2's Mary Calvi reports.
Hayley Morris was 5 years old when her father Seth was killed at the World Trade Center.
"I remember him always calling me the baby because I was the youngest," said Hayley.
Seth died along with hundreds of his colleagues at the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage firm.
Suddenly on her own with three children, his wife Lynn encouraged their youngest, Hayley, to express her feelings through art.
"My dad kind of had a curl in the front of his hair so I'd always like accent the curl," said Hayley.
Lynn says the drawings helped.
"It kind of motivated the conversation a little bit, so it was very positive for them," she said.
More than 3,000 children lost a parent on September 11th. Many of their heart wrenching images are collected in a book called Art for Heart as a fundraiser for the memorial.
"These are the people who are going to remember 9/11 for the longest," said 9/11 memorial board member Christy Ferer. "They're going to outlive us and so will their memories of what happened on that day."
Hayley's family is ready to see the memorial on Sunday and plans to eat at their dad's favorite restaurant.
It's been a long road to understanding
"I just focused on them and making sure they had as much normalcy in their lives as possible and I think only in the past few years, I look back and say we're making it," said Lynn.
Hayley hopes her words and her art will preserve the memory of a dad she remembers as smart, loving and kind.
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