Carl was my first born and he was the son every mother prays for. He was handsome, funny, and smart and he loved life. I know mothers think their sons are wonderful and the truth is, mine was. When he was born, I thought my heart would break from an overload of love for the little life I held in my arms. I told Carl often that until he was born I didn’t really know what love was.

Carl was not perfect; he was a boy after all. He had his fights and he didn’t always listen, but the truth is he was a good boy. He never got into any serious troubles and he never disappointed me.

Carl loved to tease and play practical jokes on people. He was his sisters’ best friend and their protector. The best big brother a sister could wish for. He hunted with his Dad and played golf with me. Carl was madly in love with his daughter and his son, he was a great Dad.

I’ve been asked by people what life is like without Carl and the closest I can get to really explaining the impossible is this...

Life with Carl was the sunrise every morning. Every day was bright and beautiful.Life without Carl is a permanent sunset. The sun will never really rise for me again.

Every wedding, new birth, birthday, Mothers Day, Fathers Dad, Christmas celebration is always marked with sadness because Carl isn’t there to share in the celebration. It is always sunset.

Everyone murdered on 9/11 was someone’s child, father, mother, sister, brother, husband or wife. 9/11/01 was the final sunrise for 3,000 families, not only mine.

James Gadiel, age 23, was a victim of the Moslem terrorist attacks of September 11. He worked on the 103rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

James Gadiel was a gentleman and a gentle man. Gentleness had distinguished his character from infancy. When he four years old he was the tallest and biggest child in his nursery school class and his closest friend, Ben, was by far the smallest.

One day, Ben, frustrated in a game that group of boys were playing, hit James. Ben’s mother said this was the first time he had ever had been emboldened to hit another child, and it was James he hit because he knew that James would never strike someone smaller than he.

That was typical of the boy and the man. Throughout his life, his friends saw him as a strong individual whose decency and rock solid reliability and strength could be counted on.

James was also very intelligent and had clear goals. After graduation from Washington and Lee University, James took a job with the prestigious Wall Street firm of Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center.

He was at his job as an Assistant Trader when the first hijacked plane struck. Although a few of those trapped in the building were able to contact loved ones by cell phone, to say good bye, James was evidently unable to do so. No remains have ever been identified.

James Gadiel, as fine a son and as fine a friend as could ever be wished for, he will never be forgotten by those who knew him.