How a grieving 9/11 family launched a sock business years after immense tragedy

Record ID: 1635451

  • Title: How a grieving 9/11 family launched a sock business years after immense tragedy
  • Date: 8th September 2021
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) WIDOW OF 9/11 VICTIM ANDREW FRIEDMAN, LISA FRIEDMAN CLARK, SAYING: "Things change, you know, I think for me, I found love again. I have another husband, that doesn't diminish my love for Andy and I always say, like, 'It's the three of us.' We're always together because I wouldn't be who I am without Andy. And so when I walk into a room, I've got Andy
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2021 19:26
  • Keywords: 2001 20th anniversary 9/11 Andy Friedman Dan Friedman Lisa Friedman Clark Mike Friedman September 11 Tall Order socks widow
  • Location: WESTBURY, NEW YORK, AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: WESTBURY, NEW YORK, AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA00FETUZ687
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY AND GRAPHIC MATERIAL
    In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, 11-year-old twins Mike and Dan Friedman walked to firehouses and hospitals, handing out socks to firefighters and first responders. The boys had just lost their father, Andrew Friedman, on the 92nd floor in the North Tower on September 11, 2001. Friedman, 44, was vice president for institutional equities trading at Carr Futures.
    With the socks, they also passed out flyers with their father's photo, asking everyone if they had seen him.
    Mike, now 31, said it was "brutal" when he realized his father wasn't coming home.
    "He meant everything to us as a dad, as a husband, as a friend, coach, role model," he said. "And that feeling that we're never going to see him again, that was tough. That was really tough."
    "He really lived life to the fullest, really took every day seriously and tried to make the most out of every day, tried to do all these great things, whether it was playing a lot of golf or spending time with his friends or playing sports, watching a whole lot of games, teaching us his passions, his loves and the things that we still do today," Dan said. "He was the best dad."
    At age 23, Lisa Friedman Clark, Andrew's wife, was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer, lost an ovary, went through chemotherapy, lost her hair, and Andrew was there for her every step of the way.
    "The only thing Andy worried about in the world was me, because he always used to say I had cornered the market on everything to worry about," she said. "He was just kind. He had a lot of integrity, because after I finished chemotherapy, he proposed and we got married the following year."
    Dan said the idea for the family's sock company, Tall Order, was born on that Friday after the 9/11 attacks.
    "These guys would come from all over... to go help out at Ground Zero and walk through the rubble," he said. "And their feet were getting dirty and sweaty and stinky. So they would always ask for clean and dry socks... things to help out with recovery efforts. So to us, socks have always represented hope for our family."
    As the boys grew to men and both worked in unfulfilling corporate jobs 15 years later, they had that "nagging thing in the back of our head that says we're not giving back the way that we should, the way that our dad taught us to do. And we always thought it was a 'tall order' to pay back everyone who helped us out."
    Tall Order was created in 2016 with a portion of the proceeds going to Tuesday's Children, a non-profit that supports children of 9/11 victims, the FealGood Foundation, which advocates for injured or ill 9/11 emergency personnel and also refers to the family's impressive stature, Mike, who is 1 minute older and 2 inches taller, stands at 6 feet 11 inches tall, Dan is 6'9", Andrew was 6'5" and Lisa is 6'1".
    Lisa, 59, remarried in 2005.
    "That doesn't diminish my love for Andy and I always say, like, 'It's the three of us.' We're always together because I wouldn't be who I am without Andy," she said. "And so when I walk into a room, I've got Andy here and I have Bruce here. And Bruce, because of the business that we've decided to go into and the fact that 9/11 is at the core of what we do in giving back to other people going through traumatic loss, we talk about Andy every single day."
    Mike and Dan will remember their father on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the same way each year.
    "We always go out to one of his favorite restaurants, Peter Luger's in Brooklyn, where we get together with some of his closest friends from growing up," Dan said. "We share stories. We eat great food... and we just have a good time and we try to keep it as positive as possible. We'll be doing that this year in honor of the 20th anniversary, and it's the tradition that we hope to continue for years to come. And it really is just about the celebration of his life."
    (Production: Roselle Chen, Andrew Hofstetter)
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