Two Find Love Amid Pain of 9/11

Sept. 14, 2008— -- It's been seven years since the attack on the Pentagon made ashes of Donna Teepe's "happily ever after."

"He was always making me laugh," Teepe, 63, said, describing her husband, Karl, of 34 years. "He always knew what to do, what to say, he did all the planning, he handled things right."

Teepe's husband died during the attacks on the Pentagon on 9/11, sending his wife into a period of blankness and utter disbelief.

"When he was killed, I was like, how am I -- how am I going to live without him," she said, stunned by the prospect of going about her life in their Centreville, Va., home.

Marjorie Salamone, a budget analyst for the Army, was also killed in the attack. After 31 years of marriage, Ben Salamone found himself crushed by the sudden emptiness of the home they had shared.

"My life moved about my wife and two daughters," said Salamone, a 62-year-old veterinarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and father of two grown daughters, said. "I was there by myself, just by myself, so I would come home and sit in an empty house."

To cope with this unrelenting loneliness, on Monday nights many widows and widowers from the Pentagon attack gathered in the classrooms of the Messiah United Methodist Church in Springfield, Va. Two groups met over the course of a few years to sit, talk, share and support one another, finding refuge from the world behind the stained glass windows. From their common misfortune and loneliness, deep friendships began.

At her group meetings, Teepe found one person whom she formed a connection with; the two would meet in the church's hallways to continue conversations.

"He has a good sense of humor, he has that Southern drawl and he's very, very sweet and nice," Teepe said about her newfound pillar of support.

"It makes it so much easier in my mind for me to know someone who's had the same experience as I have," Teepe said. "I don't have to explain to Donna if I start crying about something."