WASHINGTON (TNND) — A woman who lost her father in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is speaking out 25 years later, sharing her last memories of him and backing a petition urging New York City’s mayor not to attend this year’s memorial service.

Jeannette Puccio-Pick told The National News Desk her father, Joseph Pick, was awesome and spent time with her doing the things she loved. (TNND)

Jeannette Puccio-Pick told The National News Desk her father, Joseph Pick, was awesome and spent time with her doing the things she loved.

“He always played football with me,” she said. “We would also read comics together. He had a huge comic book collection of over 2500 comics. Marvel and DC.”

Puccio-Pick said she was 9 years old when she lost him. Puccio-Pick said her last memory of her father was two days before the attacks, on Sept. 9, 2001, when he let her stay up late to watch the premiere of “Awkward Teen Hunger Force” on Adult Swim.

“He let me stay up late to watch it, and it’s still one of my favorite shows to this day,” she said.

Puccio-Pick said she supports a petition started among Sept. 11 families calling on the current New York City mayor not to attend the memorial service this year. “For me personally, it’s because of the mayor’s professional, political and personal affiliation with those who have justified and minimize the murdering of our loved ones,” she said.

Puccio-Pick cited several examples, including political and personal affiliation with Hasan Piker, who in 2019 said that “America deserved 9/11,” but tried t o walk back those statements. She also pointed to the mayor’s endorsement of Aber Kawa for Senate, saying that in a 2017 interview the candidate minimized Sept. 11 by saying “it was just something a couple of people did.”

“He’s been affiliating himself with those who, you know, again, have minimized and justified the murdering of our loved one,” Puccio-Pick said. “And I just don’t feel it’s appropriate for him to be there, given, you know, those close ties to those individuals.”

Puccio-Pick said she wants younger generations to understand that the victims were more than a statistic.

“They hear the number 2977,” she said. “Our loved ones weren’t just, you know, they don’t know the people behind. You know, our loved ones are just a number. They were people. They were, you know, fathers, brothers, mothers, you know, siblings.”

She said she has been grateful for the response to the petition.

“I have appreciated all the support we’ve been given from people who have signed the petition at Change.org,” Puccio-Pick said, adding that she has been “blown away by how many people have signed it and all the support we’ve been given.”