{"id":396771,"date":"2026-09-11T10:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396771\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:58:10","slug":"maxwell-9-11-lesson-25-years-later-dont-forget-the-i-love-yous-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/396771\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxwell: 9\/11 lesson 25 years later: \u2018Don\u2019t forget the \u2018I love you\u2019s\u2019 \u2018 \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil Peraza was working at his office in Orlando when he first heard the news and hurried to find a TV.<\/p>\n

Like most Americans, he saw the same images playing\u00a0on an endless, horrific loop \u2014 two planes crashing into the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n

The disaster was nightmarish in scale. Yet Peraza had only one person on his mind: His brother Rob. He worked as a bond trader on the 104th floor in the North Tower.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting goosebumps now, just thinking about it,\u201d he said last week.<\/p>\n

Neil immediately called his father, who was thinking \u2014 hoping, perhaps \u2014 that his elder son worked in a different building.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Dad. That\u2019s Rob\u2019s building. Get Mom. Get some clothes. Rob\u2019s in real trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Peraza died that day at the age of 30, along with 657 of his fellow employees at Cantor Fitzgerald<\/a>, the finance firm that suffered the largest loss of life of any single organization that day.<\/p>\n

And though Rob was just one of 2,977 total victims in the most devastating terrorist attack to ever occur on American soil, his story went viral a decade later when the family traveled to New York for the 10-year observance.<\/p>\n

Rob\u2019s father was caught on camera the moment he found his son\u2019s name on the memorial. He dropped to his knees, placed his hands on his son\u2019s name and began to pray.<\/p>\n

ABC News<\/a> would go on to say that Robert Peraza became \u201cthe face of grief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David Peraza, pauses at his son’s name at the North Pool of the 9\/11 Memorial on Sept. 11, 2011. (Justin Lane)<\/p>\n

Another 15 years have since passed. So has the boys\u2019 father<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year \u2014 for the 25th remembrance \u2014 Neil will be in New York without his brother or his father.<\/p>\n

For Neil, 53, every birthday is a reminder that he has lived another year longer than his brother ever did.<\/p>\n

And today, as a nation, we will pause to remember people who are no longer here, but also a solidarity we no longer hold dear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis country came together like we\u2019ve never seen,\u201d Neil said. \u201cSince then, we somehow forgot how to talk to each other. We don\u2019t talk about the things we agree on. It\u2019s either: I won or you cheated. That saddens me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe twin towers of the World Trade Center burn behind the Empire State Building in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. (Marty Lederhandler\/AP file)<\/p>\n

In the face of such constant division, the married Hunters Creek father of three says the tragedy taught him was to look for common ground. And to let the people he treasures know how he feels.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvest in your relationships,\u201d Neil said. \u201cDon\u2019t forget the \u2018I love you\u2019s.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the greatest gifts Neil\u2019s brother gave him was an email he sent the week before he died. It ended with these six words: \u201cPeace, love you very much brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the last communication I had with my brother,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Neil has tried to carry that practice with him, knowing that tomorrows are never guaranteed.<\/p>\n

He and his sister have also tried to honor their brother by spreading the word about the joyful and helpful way Rob lived.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t ever die if you keep their memories alive,\u201d Neil said.<\/p>\n

Rob was athletic and gregarious. He loved rugby and making people laugh. \u201cHe could make friends anywhere with anybody,\u201d his brother said. \u201cHe was always good for a chuckle or a good jab.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Peraza was working on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 when two planes struck the building. His family – including his brother, Neil of Orlando – never saw him again.<\/p>\n

The brothers grew up in upstate New York and frequently played sports together. Neil admits with admiration that his brother usually won, saying: \u201cI think I took one set of tennis off him in our entire lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

But rugby was Rob\u2019s passion. He loved playing at St. Bonaventure University. So after he died, his family couldn\u2019t think of a better way to honor him than setting up a scholarship at the school for other students who played.<\/p>\n

Neil obviously doesn\u2019t know precisely what his brother was doing when the planes struck. He likes to imagine that he was talking with co-workers about something he loved. Probably sports. Maybe fantasy football or the recently completed U.S. Open.<\/p>\n

But one thing his family knows is that Rob\u2019s life wasn\u2019t just lost, it was taken, violently and intentionally. \u201cI don\u2019t like the word \u2018loss\u2019 when talking about these victims,\u201d he said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t \u2018lost.\u2019 They were murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Neil stays focused on keeping his brother\u2019s memory alive. Not only by telling his own daughters that he loves them as often as possible, but by making sure they know everything possible about the uncle they never met.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the main reasons Neil still speaks about Rob in the present tense, saying: \u201cHe will always be my brother for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NeilNeil Peraza holds a FDNY helmet given to him by a firefighter friend of his brother Rob Peraza, at Neil\u2019s home in Orlando, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2027. Rob was on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower on Sept. 11, 2001, and was among the nearly 3,000 that were killed in the terrorist attack in New York City 25 years ago. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neil Peraza was working at his office in Orlando when he first heard the news and hurried to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[483,114,266,482,12151,139,141,140,24162,109,76410],"class_list":["post-396771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-commentary","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-scott-maxwell","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}