9/11 Victims Who Never Got the Chance to Meet Their Babies
Seventeen children were born to widowed mothers after September 11, 2001, and 11 women died in the terrorist attacks while pregnant.
The fathers of the then unborn children knew their babies were on the way, but never got to meet the now nine-year-old sons and daughters.
Diane Sawyer of NBC News was able to speak with some of the families of these special 17 children. Although she never met her father, Phelan Halloran told Sawyer, “This is a picture of my father. I really love him. I miss him a lot. I never met him, but I know I love him.”
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Mother of Grace Danahy, Mary, tells her daughter that her late husband Patrick knew Grace was on the way.
“He knew who you were Grace,” Mary says, for Patrick had asked the doctor what gender the baby was during the ultrasound appointment unbeknownst of Mary.
“The doctor called me after he died to tell me,” explained Mary.
“My mom says I have his eyes,” Grace told Sawyer. “She said that he was free-spirited and she said that I was too.”
To honor the unborn children who died with their mothers on Sept. 11, the National Memorial features the name of the victim along with the phrase “and her unborn child.”
All morning on Sunday in lower Manhattan, family members and friends of 9/11 victims listed the nearly 3,000 names of those lost.
