BUFFALO, N.Y. — Karen Eckert is turning through the pages of history in a book called “Portraits, 9/11/01,” part of which honors her late brother-in-law Sean Rooney.
“It’s very difficult because every anniversary is very raw for anyone it affected. It is a raw, kind of heart-pounding day,” said Eckert.
She recalls where she was the morning of September 11, 2001.
“I was at work and my secretary at the time came in my office and said a plane has hit the World Trade Center and she knew my brother-in-law Sean Rooney worked in the Trade Center,” she said.
Rooney was working on the 98th floor of the South Tower and had left a couple of voicemails for his wife Beverly, Karen’s sister, shortly after he heard the first plane had hit the North Tower.
“I was nervous. We found a TV and I went to watch and I saw the second plane hit the towers. Just praying that Sean had got out,” Eckert said.
Karen later learned Sean did not make it out.
“Overwhelming. Being in that suspended state of panic for hours like that,” she said.
Before the couple moved to Stamford, Conn., Rooney graduated from Canisius High School in Buffalo and then went to the University at Buffalo.
“Highly intelligent. Kind of a wicked sense of humor. He was very, very funny. He was one of the kindest people I know and just so helpful. He is just so missed,” Eckert said.
To help keep his memory alive and that of the other lives lost, Eckert helps plan the annual remembrance ceremony at the Amherst Memorial Hill Grove.
The site comes complete with a momument and 120 oak trees.
“These were ordinary people with families. Keep them in our hearts and treasure the people that we do love, that are here because anything can change in an instant,” Eckert said.
Almost eight years later, in February 2009, Karen lost her sister Beverly when Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashed over Clarence Center, killing all 50 people on board and one on the ground.
Beverly had been scheduled to award a memorial scholarship in Sean’s name at Canisius.
“With her, the trauma, the grief. And we had walked that way already. In a way, we were prepared because we knew not only is this a terrible gut wrenching eperience but we knew we could survive it. You find your way to put it in a spot in your brain and in your heart and to live,” Eckert said.
Eckert continues to join the other Flight 3407 families to publicly advocate for stronger federal aviation safety measures, just as her late sister Beverly fought for tougher security legislation after 9/11.