\u201cIt does feel like I\u2019m following in his footsteps a bit, while also trying to make my own way,\u201d Gardner, 29, said of his dad.<\/p>\n
A quarter of a century later, the youngest of the kids of 9\/11 victims are no longer children<\/a>. They\u2019re young people building careers, getting married and having kids of their own, and going about their lives \u2014 all while carrying on the legacies of their parents and loves ones.<\/p>\n Increasingly, Sept. 11 commemoration is falling to this generation to remember a day they may or may not recall so vividly themselves. Some are engaged in annual tribute events, and active in charities or causes related to 9\/11 and the country\u2019s response.<\/p>\n Others would prefer not to think of the day at all.<\/p>\n But no matter how they\u2019re coping, the young people whose lives were irrevocably changed on that day want their peers and those born after 2001 to understand that 9\/11 was personal, not just the stuff of history textbooks \u2014 and its impact is still very much present in their lives.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s going to talk about it like it\u2019s this historical thing, and it is,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cBut to me, it\u2019s this deeply, deeply personal thing that fractured our family, and it is a huge part of my story, and I live with it every day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just something in a textbook. It\u2019s not a punchline<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Gardner\u2019s grief has evolved, especially as he has kept marking life events with a key person missing, such as his recent engagement or when the Knicks won the NBA finals earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t help but think how much would it mean for him to be there for this,\u201d Gardner said of his dad, who was 6\u20194\u2033 and played basketball. \u201cHow much he loved the \u201990s Knicks. How much he would have loved this team \u2026 How they were always pulling for each other, and no adversity was too big. It just reminded me of what he stood for.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what the grief has turned into like over the years,\u201d he added. \u201cMore so along the lines of like, \u2018Man, I really wish you could have seen that.’\u201d<\/p>\n Too young to remember, too close to forget<\/p>\n Dylan Meltzer, now 25, was born a few months before the attack and was too young to remember his dad, Stuart \u201cStu\u201d Meltzer, before he died in the attacks, also at the Cantor Fitzgerald office.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad\u2019s always been like this mythical being to me who obviously has the biggest impact on my life for someone who I\u2019ve only known for six months,\u201d Meltzer said. \u201cTo say that I have memories of him would just be a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n So he\u2019s found ways to connect with his dad through Boston sports and stories passed down by an uncle who was like a father figure to him.<\/p>\n Recognizing 9\/11 didn\u2019t always come easy to Meltzer. For years, he said he hated being \u201cthe kid whose dad died on 9\/11.\u201d That changed when he went to college out of state at Indiana University: \u201cI got to just be a college kid.\u201d<\/p>\n When it came time to get a job after college, Meltzer still wasn\u2019t ready to move back to New York, a place he hated growing up and was hyper-aware of two buildings missing from the skyline. He tried to find work elsewhere: first in Chicago, then Florida. But eventually, his career sent him to not only New York, but the Financial District, where he now lives.<\/p>\n Meltzer, who had always avoided the 9\/11 memorial<\/a>, recognizes the irony. But life, and an appreciation for the West Side Highway, force him to pass the memorial nearly every day. He doesn\u2019t linger. He keeps walking, talking to the ghost of his dad, about the Patriots and the Red Sox.<\/p>\n Sept. 11 is still very much a tough day for Meltzer, who prefers to remember his dad on Father\u2019s Day, and spend the anniversary of the terror attacks out of the city with family. But once on a drive home, he and his brother started singing the national anthem. Then they laughed.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been their tradition ever since.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s just a way for us to to put a little humor in it \u2026 on probably the most somber day,\u201d Meltzer said. \u201cIt started from patriotism. And then we realized how funny it was.\u201d<\/p>\n The gift of time<\/p>\n Ian Dannenfelser, 18, had more years with his grandpa, a volunteer firefighter at Ground Zero, than the other children of 9\/11 victims had with their parents. His \u201cPop,\u201d Gene Dannenfelser, passed away from 9\/11-related lung cancer<\/a>\u00a0in 2017.<\/p>\n His family ensured he used the borrowed time wisely. Shortly before his grandfather died, Dannenfelser and his younger sister, who were 9 and 7 at the time, interviewed their grandpa. He came prepared with a list of written questions and in a suit, while Pop presented old magazines, his gear, and medals he received. The result was a 30-minute video he and his sister later would share with their classmates \u2014 who weren\u2019t even born yet in 2001.<\/p>\n \u201cOn 9\/11, we would watch clips of it because schools don\u2019t really teach it anymore<\/a>,\u201d Dannenfelser said. \u201cHis stories, the way he told them, it always hit deep. No matter how goofy the class was, everybody always took it seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI learned 9\/11 through my pop, and then when he passed, I learned it through research and through the memorial,\u201d he added. \u201cMy classmates did it like the opposite way. They learned through I guess elementary school through when it used to be taught every day on 9\/11, so they knew what happened and just the facts. But I think me being able to relate to it, and hearing it from someone who is there, is just a completely different mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n Dannenfelser is still carrying on his grandpa\u2019s legacy. He and his parents, also volunteer firefighters, have applied for grants to improve firefighter equipment and learning about the risks of cancer for firefighters, and presented their findings at conventions.<\/p>\n This month, Dannenfelser was awarded a scholarship by the Barasch & McGarry Charitable Foundation<\/a>, the philanthropic\u00a0arm of a 9\/11 victim compensation law firm, to study mechanical engineering degree at Penn State. He hopes to pursue a higher degree in fire protection engineering at the University of Maryland after graduation.<\/p>\n From generation to generation<\/p>\n Elyse (Travers) Meltzer, 30, sees her decision to become a counselor, with the help of the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund<\/a> \u2014 another financial grant for the relatives of 9\/11 victims \u2014 and support others as connected to her dad, Walter \u201cWally\u201d Philip Travers. Wally, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee who survived the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, helped others evacuate the building for five hours as he descended 101 flights of stairs<\/a>. He later died in the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a big thing in our family is we always talk about him. We don\u2019t avoid the conversation. We celebrate his life, and we try to continue on his legacy,\u201d Meltzer said. (Elyse is not related to Dylan.)<\/p>\n Meltzer recently celebrated her wedding day and bought a house with her new husband in New Jersey. Her two older brothers have married and started having children, who every 9\/11 gather together at her mom\u2019s house to watch the ceremony on TV. They tell stories about Wally \u2014 of his humor and compassion \u2014 to the younger generation.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause my nieces and nephews are so young, they aren\u2019t fully aware of everything, but they do know that grandpa is a big part of our lives,\u201d Meltzer said. \u201cHe would have loved to meet them. He would have loved you know how big our family is getting.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important for younger generations to never forget all those people who are lost.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe history will be there; the textbooks will be there,\u201d she added. \u201cBut I think the families of 9\/11 and the people and also first responders \u2014 those are the the people that should be remembered, and should be talked about more than what\u2019s in the the textbook. It\u2019s the memories and the lives of the people that really matter.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t![\"Jennifer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Doug-and-Jennifer-Gardner-with-their-children-in-Seaview-Fire-Island-on-Labor-Day-2001-eight-days-be.jpeg\")
Jennifer and Douglas Gardner with their children, Julia and Michael. Douglas Gardner died in the World Trade Center on 9\/11. (Courtesy of Jennifer Gardner)<\/p>\n![\"Stuart](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_2934.jpg\")
Stuart “Stu” Meltzer is pictured with his son, Dylan, as a baby. Stu Meltzer died on 9\/11. (Courtesy of Dylan Meltzer)<\/p>\n![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_8338.jpg\")
Ian Dannenfelser and his sister (inset) interview their father, a volunteer firefighter, in a video posted to YouTube. (Jill Dannenfelser via YouTube)<\/p>\n![\"Elyse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG_7154.jpg\")
Elyse (Travers) Meltzer is pictured with her father Walter “Wally” Philip Travers. (Courtesy of Elyse Meltzer)<\/p>\n![\"Jan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/DN_NYDNLegacy_8362460.jpg\")
Jan Seidler Ramirez, chief curator and director of collections at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, shows some of the objects in storage from victims and survivors of the 9\/11 attack at the World Trade Center. Here, she holds a “Welcome back to the WTC” coffee mug given to all returning tenants after the 1993 bombing. It belonged to Wally Travers, who died in the 2001 attack. (David Handschuh \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n