Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas is shown in this undated family photo copied in Houston, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Grandcolas died aboard United Flight 93, which crashed after passengers and crew members fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane into a field near Shanksville, Penn.
Catuzzi Family Photo/Catuzzi Family
Houston’s Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas was described as “a can-do spirit” and “a sparkle in a gray suit world.” On her 30th birthday, she surprised her husband with plans to go skydiving; on her refrigerator, she hung a handwritten quote from “The Shawshank Redemption”: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” Always on the hunt for a new challenge, she went deep-sea diving, mastered new recipes, took piano lessons and trained to become certified as an emergency medical technician. Her family joked that Nike must’ve had her in mind when it coined the slogan “Just do it!”
Her sash of Girl Scout badges hung in her office while she worked in marketing and advertising. Then she left her job to work on a merit badge handbook of her own, focused on helping “grown-up girls” keep growing, dreaming and making friends along the way.
Danielle Asen, 28, brings her children, Emma and Jack, to visit Lauren’s Garden in Houston on Sept. 11, 2018.
Brett Coomer/Staff photographer
A fountain in the Lauren’s Garden section of Market Square Park is photographed in downtown Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. The garden honors Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, a Houston native who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Lauren’s Garden at Market Square Park is photographed in downtown in Houston, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. The garden was created in memory of Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
A poem is inscribed in the pavement in front of the fountain in Lauren’s Garden at Market Square Park in downtown Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. The garden honors Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
Lawrence Catuzzi, left, and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III greet each other following the dedication ceremony of Lauren’s Garden at Market Square Park Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010, in Houston. The garden is a gift to the city from the Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas Foundation.
Brett Coomer/Chronicle
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee shares a moment with Barbara Catuzzi after presenting an American flag to her during a commemorative event remembering those lost on Sept. 11 at Market Square Park’s Lauren’s Garden Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in Houston. Catuzzi’s daughter, Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, was a passenger on United Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle
Carson Moll, left, and her father-in-law, Guillermo Moll, read the poem dedicated at Market Square Park’s Lauren’s Garden after participating in the commemoration remembering those lost on Sept. 11, on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in Houston.
Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle
A bell honoring the 343 firefighters who died during Sept.11 is seen as Larry Catuzzi speaks during a Sept. 11 commemoration at Lauren’s Garden at Market Square Park Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012.
Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle
A fountain in the Lauren’s Garden section of Market Square Park is photographed in downtown Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. The garden honors Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, a Houston native who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
A fountain in the Lauren’s Garden section of Market Square Park is photographed in downtown Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. The garden honors Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, a Houston native who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
A fountain in the Lauren’s Garden section of Market Square Park is photographed in downtown Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. The garden honors Houston-raised Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, who died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
A sculpture honoring Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas is photographed in Lauren’s Garden at Market Square Park in downtown Houston on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Grandcolas died aboard United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
At 38, she had finished the first chapter — “Dare to dream: The first step” — and was pregnant with her first child when she boarded Flight 93 on the way home to the Bay Area from a grandparent’s funeral.
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The morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Flight 93 was the only hijacked plane that did not reach its intended target. According to a call made from the plane, passengers and crew held a vote on whether to rush the cockpit in an attempt to thwart the suicide mission. They did, and the plane veered off its course for Washington, D.C., instead crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. All 40 passengers and crew members were killed.
Her father, Larry Catuzzi, remembers her as “a real doer,” with an “anxiousness to help people.” Catuzzi Grandcolas treated time as something to spend and not to save. After her death, her family followed her example.
They finished “You Can Do It!: The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls,” which sold more than 100,000 copies. The proceeds went to a foundation set up in her name, which awarded more than 100 college scholarships and helped fund neonatal and maternal care at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Twenty-five years later, the book is out of print, and the foundation has ended its work. But the connections she set in motion remain. Women found mentors. Readers discovered inspiration to accomplish their dreams. And new families received care and support during one of the hardest times of their lives. Her legacy is a reminder to get busy living — and to do it together.
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A scholarship and a way forward
Kathleen Mechler Foley still remembers meeting the Catuzzi family when she applied more than two decades ago to be a Grandcolas Scholar.
When the family announced the winner, Larry and Barbara Catuzzi said Mechler Foley exemplified qualities they saw in their daughter. One of her sisters said she thought Lauren would be happy to help someone from her alma mater, Stratford High School, achieve her goal of becoming a women’s health nurse practitioner.
The experience deeply moved Mechler Foley. Now a parent herself, she thinks back on Catuzzi Grandcolas and her family with renewed emotion. “Just a devastating story,” she said. “But also they chose to just keep going amongst their grief, and this was kind of one of the ways that they did it. So I felt very honored to receive this scholarship.”
Larry Catuzzi, father of Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, posses for a portrait in Houston, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Grandcolas died aboard United Flight 93.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
Although Mechler Foley had not known Catuzzi Grandcolas, she pursued her dream of helping other women with their health care by taking the same first step outlined in Catuzzi Grandcolas’ book: clearly understanding her motivation. Her own gynecological issues as a teenager helped her envision the type of nurse she wanted to become. “That’s what pushed me through my master’s is knowing what I wanted to be at the end.”
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After more than a decade of nursing in Houston, she gave birth to her son and realized she wanted to stay home with him for her next chapter.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: Tragedy victim’s legacy grows at Lauren’s Garden
And when it comes to living a full life, she traced that mindset to something she learned in high school. “I was one of the co-valedictorians at Stratford. Certainly not because I was the smartest, because I was not, but just because I worked hard and persevered.” She played tennis, which she credits with developing her resilience, frustration tolerance and work ethic.
Twenty-five years will teach you that there are things even the greatest work ethic cannot solve — something she had to face when she struggled with fertility issues. Yet she came to see the situation as an exception, not the rule. And she credits it with helping her support patients during difficult times.
“I think most things in life, if you are kind to people, and you work hard, and you persevere, then you can do anything. As cheesy as it sounds.”
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Grandcolas Scholar Kathleen Mechler Foley stands with her family in Switzerland, where she lives after working as a women’s health nurse practitioner in Houston for 13 years.
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The book Lauren left behind
That life lesson is at the heart of Catuzzi Grandcolas’ book, which her sisters, Vaughn Catuzzi Lohec and Dara Catuzzi Near, completed with help from writer Yvette Bozzini and dozens of female mentors.
The book’s merit badges range from “dare to dream” to stand-up comedy, quilting, negotiating, breaking bad habits, budgeting, car care, meditation and creating your own challenge. Every chapter asks readers to imagine achieving a goal, identify their motivation, learn from an expert and follow the steps toward it. The experts included the leader of the first American expedition to climb one of the highest peaks in the Himalayas and the executive editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.
Throughout, readers are advised to use their goals to connect with people: “The encouragement of friends may make the difference between persevering and giving up.”
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Claudia Frere-Anderson, the mentor for the last chapter before readers are encouraged to “dream on,” was working in San Francisco at VolunteerMatch, an online database of volunteer opportunities, when a board member asked if she would be interested in speaking with the writer of the book. They chatted about her journey; Frere-Anderson wanted to give back but wasn’t sure what kind of commitment she was ready for, so she signed up to tutor a student, which eventually grew into a mentoring relationship. Then, in her late 20s, she had a bout with cancer.
Claudia Frere-Anderson, a mentor in “You Can Do It!”, helps restore a trail on Earth Day by clearing out invasive ivy.
Contributed/Claudia Frere-Anderson
Claudia Frere-Anderson, a mentor in “You Can Do It!”, helps restore a trail on Earth Day by clearing out invasive ivy.
Contributed/Claudia Frere-Anderson
“This woke me up,” she said in the excerpt of the conversation published in the book. “I realized my life might be shorter than I’d thought and that I shouldn’t put things off until tomorrow. And I realized that I wanted to make my career congruent with my deepest goals.”
But, like the tutoring relationship, that conversation turned out to be just the start. The mentors’ email addresses were listed in the back of the book, and readers reached out to ask for Frere-Anderson advice.
“Some people do jobs that they’re not that excited about,” she explained. But of course a job isn’t all that you do. She always encourages volunteer work that’s personally meaningful. And it’s also possible, she said, to use volunteering to test the waters of a new direction for your career. “I always feel like it’s just such a great spark for figuring out what you’re passionate about.”
One reader reached out to say he wanted to help but wasn’t sure how. Frere-Anderson pointed out that many companies have roles that create meaningful ways for employees to give back. He eventually moved into such a job at his company’s foundation.
She was grateful to have connected with Catuzzi Grandcolas through the book, which she hopes will “continue to serve other women trying to figure out how to take the next step.”
Now, Frere-Anderson finds herself astounded that 25 years have passed. “It just goes to show that, really, how you spend your time does matter,” she said. “I’m glad I did what I’ve been doing.”
And when it comes to what’s truly important, she said, “I think we all have the time.”
Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas is shown in this undated family photo copied in Houston, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Grandcolas died aboard United Flight 93, that crashed after passengers and crew members fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane into a field near Shanksville, Penn.
Catuzzi Family Photo/Catuzzi Family
Clare Neubert, who has read the book from cover to cover and still keeps it on her shelf, said that volunteering was one of her favorite chapters. Other favorites: dancing, traveling, photography, building a website, decorating, sewing, becoming well-read, yoga and personal style.
“I was just inspired by how she lived her life,” she said.
Neubert works at a library, so for her to keep a book instead of simply borrowing it, it has to be special. This book felt like a companion in her lifelong passion for learning new things, she said. “If there was something I wanted to try later on, I could use this book as a reference — oh, that’s in Lauren’s book, let me check it out.”
Lately, the Cleveland, Ohio, native has picked up tennis and pickleball and returned to tap dancing. “Something I got out of that is community,” she said. “You can form friendships. You can bond with others.”
Her sister decided to take up tap dancing, too, and it’s a way to spend time together. Before going onstage, they practice together to calm their nerves.
“By doing this new thing, I got to push myself out of my comfort zone,” she said. “It’s kind of rewarding at the end to say: I did that. I got over my fear. And I did it with my sister, which is pretty cool.”
Clare Neubert, on the right, and her sister, Natale, after their first tap dancing recital as adults in 2024. Neubert keeps “You Can Do It!” on her shelf to consult when she picks up new activities.
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A legacy of care
The proceeds from “You Can Do It!” went not only to scholarships; the foundation also gave significant gifts to causes close to Catuzzi Grandcolas’ heart. For over 20 years, it contributed annually to Texas Children’s Hospital.
“Being able to participate in this kind of philanthropy can be one of the deepest rewards of accumulating assets and living a financially sound life,” advises Catuzzi Grandcolas’s book in a chapter on estate planning and philanthropy (which follows the one on saving and investing).
The funds given to the hospital helped develop Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, where women can give birth and receive postpartum care in the same building, and sometimes the same room, where their newborns receive treatment. Previously, even if a pregnant woman knew her baby would need to undergo treatment immediately after birth, she would give birth in another hospital, where she would have to remain for postpartum care as the baby was transported to Texas Children’s.
Suzanne Baird makes up an infant warmer in a labor and delivery room in the Mother Baby Unit in Houston. Proceeds from a book written by 9/11 victim Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas titled “The Merit Badge Handbook for Grown-Up Girls,” helped fund neonatal and maternal care at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
“I think this pavilion for women has really been life-changing for moms who have very challenging pregnancies and whose babies require intensive care,” said Dr. Kristina Reber, chief of neonatology. “Just the idea of being separated and not being able to be with your baby when they’re very ill is very distressing to both mothers and babies, and we’ve often had parents tell us how meaningful it is that they can be close by.”
The funds also support the neonatal intensive care unit and day-to-day operations of the Pavilion for Women, such as meals for mothers of critically ill children so that they don’t have to leave the bedside to eat, and beads to celebrate milestones, such as a first bath, that take place in the hospital, books to read to the children and resources for the mothers’ mental health. Some babies stay in the hospital for weeks, months or even over a year.
“She’s continuing her legacy through the babies, mothers and families that we take care of every day,” Reber said. “She’s continuing to support families through an extremely challenging and difficult time.”
A place to remember Lauren
In the heart of Houston — where people once gathered to buy and sell produce and City Hall once stood — there is a quiet spot in Market Square Park.
Crape myrtles cover a clearing with dappled shade. A bust of Catuzzi Grandcolas looks out at a fountain, water flowing down the faces of three granite slabs, monuments to each of the three crash sites in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. The water flows around stones cemented in place, one stone for every life lost. Mist rises toward a skyscraper on the skyline and drifts over the hedge onto a field.
Sometimes, concerts are held there. On a recent Sunday, a girl tossed a wiffle ball to two boys with bats. The sounds of an accordion spilled out from the speakers of a nearby cafe. Couples clad in athleisure sat on a brick patio with bistro seating; a woman in a dress that matched the flower clip holding her hair also paused to rest.
Matthew Lohec, left, and his sister Emily, nephew and niece of Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, look at a water feature that is the centerpiece of Lauren’s Garden at Market Square Park Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010, in Houston.
Brett Coomer/Chronicle
A man wearing work boots fished through a garbage bin, then a recycling bin, where he found a half-full bottle of water and a plastic to-go bag. He looked inside and decided to keep it. The children peered around the hedge to see where the mist was coming from. An inscription etched in the ground dedicates Lauren’s Garden to those lost in the attacks of Sept. 11, and offers a poem: “The Summer Day,” by Mary Oliver.
“Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Larry Catuzzi doesn’t know quite where his daughter’s infectious, can-do spirit came from. Maybe her position as a middle child cultivated her assertiveness and her drive to stand out in a crowd. Maybe his own role as a community-minded football coach offered her a playbook. Maybe his late wife’s commitment to service inspired her — her mother, Barbara, was once an elementary school teacher and, later in life, brought her yellow Labrador retrievers, trained as therapy dogs, to comfort patients in children’s hospitals.
What he does know is that it impacted everyone she touched, and he hopes visitors to her garden leave with a sense of the kind of person his daughter was.
“You would’ve liked her,” he said. “She was very easy to like.”