'My brain just split' - 9/11 widow still grieves her husband, says he lives on in their daughter

Record ID: 1635536

  • Title: 'My brain just split' - 9/11 widow still grieves her husband, says he lives on in their daughter
  • Date: 8th September 2021
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) WIDOW OF 9/11 VICTIM RONALD BREITWEISER, KRISTEN BREITWEISER, SAYING: "We were only married for four and a half years when he was killed, and Caroline was 2 and a half, so, I kind of didn't get a chance to have a family and raise a family and children with someone, which I think is one of the biggest, saddest things about my life. I think there's some
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2021 21:18
  • Keywords: 2001 20th anniversary 9/11 Kristen Breitweiser Ron Breitweiser September 11 widow
  • Location: UNKNOWN CITY, AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, AND WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • City: UNKNOWN CITY, AND NEW YORK, NEW YORK, AND WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA00DETUZ5FR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY AND GRAPHIC MATERIAL
    Kristen Breitweiser's worldview was shattered when hijacked planes slammed into New York City's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, killing her husband Ronald Breitweiser, who was 39. He was a senior vice president at Fiduciary Trust International.
    "My husband Ron was on the 94th floor of the second tower and he called me to say that he had just seen an explosion on the building next to him," Breitweiser said via Zoom.
    She's immunocompromised and on three heavy duty drugs that make her extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.
    Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, Breitweiser was diagnosed with a breast tumor and was suffering from colitis and lupus.
    "He had felt his cheek get warm and he was watching people fall and or jump out the windows across from him," she said. "We said our I love you's and got off the phone and like 3 minutes later, I saw his building explode right where he had sat moments before, talking to me on the phone. My brain sort of just split. And I've never really looked at the world the same way again."
    In short order, Breitweiser, a lawyer, became a widow, activist and author.
    "When you look at the record of 9/11 and you see the utter lack of justice for the 3,000 lives lost, it's deplorable," Breitweiser said. "There is just this utter lack of desire or demand for accountability, responsibility and justice. And I hope going forward that maybe at some point the 9/11 families will be given what we deserve, which is peace and closure."
    Breitweiser is one of the "Jersey Girls" widows from New Jersey who pressed officials in Washington for a public accounting of the attacks. She eventually channeled her frustration with Washington into a book, "Wake-Up Call: The Political Education of a 9/11 Widow."
    A passage from her book tells of being notified that her husband's arms and wedding ring had been recovered at the Ground Zero site where the World Trade Center towers fell.
    "It was important for at least my friends and I, the other widows, for us to put on a strong face, and that's why we engaged so much with the advocacy work in Washington, because we wanted the kids to see that we weren't victims of terrorists, that we were taking back control of our lives, and that we were fighting and doing everything that we could to ensure that the nation would be safe," Breitweiser said.
    The 50-year-old Breitweiser said she is devoted to ensuring that her 22-year-old daughter Caroline, who was 2 when her father was killed, "saw that her dad's life was not lost in vain. I wanted to ensure that no other person or child would suffer what we had just suffered."
    Breitweiser has continued her work with the 9/11 families. She writes for investigative news site The Intercept and is a co-founder of September 11th Advocates.
    And Ronald lives on in their daughter Caroline.
    "She has his personality of just always being happy and always overcoming whatever is in front of her and spinning it and making it the best that it can be, which I'm not always so good at, but she's teaching me along the way," she said. "I am so, so blessed to have been fortunate enough to have a baby with Ron and to have him living inside of Caroline, as he does. And a piece of him, a large piece of him, is in her. And it's a joy, like he's with us. And that enables me to kind of, go on."
    Breitweiser and Caroline will remember the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the same way they always do, spending "time alone outside in nature. It's where we feel closest to my husband and it's where we are able to find a modicum of peace. It's where I feel safest and most in touch with Ron."
    Saturday's (September 11) ceremony includes moments of silence in New York, marking when hijacked passenger planes hit the Twin Towers as well as when they collapsed. There will also be moments of silence marking when hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon in Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
    (Production: Roselle Chen)
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