9/11 Families' Snapshots of Grief at Moussaoui Hearing

April 10, 2006 — -- Today at the Zacarias Moussaoui hearing, jurors who will decide the al Qaeda conspirator's fate were given several snapshots of pain and grief from family members who lost loved ones on 9/11.

John Creamer, an assistant principal from Massachusetts, lost his wife, Tara, aboard American Airlines Flight 11. She left behind two children. He recalled breaking the news to his young son that his mother was dead.

"How do you tell a 4-year-old child that your mother is dead and she's not coming back?" Creamer said on the stand today.

He said he and his son fell asleep crying in his bedroom. His 5-year-old daughter does not remember her mother. Creamer said the loss of his wife "devastated me. I try to be as strong as I can. It changed me. I have been basically empty. ... I feel empty."

C. Lee Hanson lost his son, Peter; daughter-in-law, Sue Kim; and granddaughter, Christine Lee, who was the youngest victim of 9/11. She was 2½ years old.

Hanson recalled his son calling him from Flight 175. "He told me the plane had been hijacked. His voice was soft, but there was a nervousness. He told me he thought they'd stabbed someone."

Hanson said his son asked him to call United Airlines and hung up.

His son called back and said, "I think they are going to try to crash this plane into a building. ... Don't worry, Dad. If it happens, it will be quick. "

The last thing his son said in a soft voice was, "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God."

Weeping at the hearing today, Hanson said, "I looked over to the television set and saw the plane crash."

Survivors' Guilt

On the morning of 9/11, Harry Waizer, who worked for the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, was in the elevator of the World Trade Center.

There was an explosion, there was fire, and the elevator started to plummet. His pants caught on fire and he tried to beat out the flames. Then there was a ball of flames. The elevator eventually glided to the 78th floor, and Waizer jumped out.

Waizer sustained severe burns to his face and legs and was unconscious for seven weeks. His hospital stay was five months and two days. He's had numerous surgeries and complications from his injuries.

But Waizer was one of the lucky ones -- 658 employees of Cantor Fitzgerald died that day, two-thirds of the company's work force.

After two years, Waizer went back to work. "I went back with very mixed feelings," he said. "The people I was closest to died on 9/11. ... It's hard not to feel some guilt."

Ron Clifford, a software salesman, had a business meeting at the World Trade Center Marriot that day. He tried to save Jennieann Maffeo, who was badly burned. Maffeo said to him, "Sacred heart of Jesus, help me."

Clifford said the Lord's Prayer with her. Later that day, he found out that his sister, her 4-year-old daughter and his sister's best friend had been killed aboard Flights 175 and 11.

Questioned by a defense attorney today, Clifford said, "I think today is closure for me on many levels. I have to go on. I have a mortgage like everybody else. I have a daughter."

The woman Clifford helped, Jennieann Maffeo, died after 41 days from the burns she sustained. Her sister, Andrea Maffeo, described the impact on her family. She said they are shells of the people they once were.

Carolee Azzarello lost two brothers who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald -- Tim, 42, and John, 41. She said she has been destroyed. "I remember my husband saying, 'I want my wife back,'" Azzarello said. "I told him she was gone. That there is a new version of me. Its never-ending. There's no end to it."

Wen Shi lost her husband, Wei Bin Wang, who also worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. They have three children. One son was 2 years old when his father died.

Shi told her son that his father is in heaven, but she told the jurors today that after a flight in 2003, her son said to her, "You lied. I was in a plane looking for Daddy. I could not find him. You lied to me."

Lashawn Clark described life with her husband, Benjamin Keefe Clark, an executive chef at Sodexho at the World Trade Center. She described her husband as a romantic, surprising her regularly with flowers for no reason, and surprising her with gourmet meals. He was a loving father of five.

The prosecutor asked what she missed. "I miss his presence," Clark said. "All the things we didn't get a chance to do. He's missing milestones. My son is graduating with honors from college. I miss his pampering. I miss his smell. I miss him finishing my sentences."

Co-workers said he died trying to save others.