9/11 ‘miracle’ babies, now turning 21, were lifesavers for families
These “miracle” infants are all grown up — turning 21 and reflecting on their solemn birthday, Sept. 11, 2001, once they saved their dads’ lives.
The infants have been busy being born that tragic morning, guaranteeing that their fathers wouldn’t be of their downtown places of work on the coronary heart of catastrophe.
As a substitute of crossing the bridge connecting the World Commerce Heart to his CIBC Oppenheimer workplace on the World Monetary Heart, Steve Condos was at NYU Medical Heart together with his spouse, Marika, who went into labor three weeks early. Their son, Reggi, was born at 9:23 a.m. — 36 minutes earlier than the primary tower collapsed.
It was “bittersweet” for Steve, who described the “juxtaposition of the circle of life, preventing by the happiness and unhappiness of that day.”
“He’s the rationale I consider in miracles,” Marika mentioned of Reggi.
“The timing was miraculous. Steve would have been at work,” mentioned the West Village mother of three. “Most individuals begin to cry. They are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, he most certainly saved your husband’s life.’”
Being born on 9/11 is a “very vital a part of my identification,” mentioned Reggi, now a junior at NYU finding out music.
When his dad and mom first confirmed him the unique Submit story about his entrance into the world, Reggi, who traveled residence from the hospital at three days previous with a police escort, internalized conflicting emotions.
“It at all times gave me this sense of how treasured life is — that something can occur at any time, and it’s best to at all times get pleasure from life to the fullest whereas getting ready for something to occur,” he mentioned.
Being born on such a fraught day is ”one thing that I take with me in all places,” Reggi mentioned, including that as a child he would spend time at a downtown firehouse close to his old skool finding out the memorial to its bravest misplaced that day.
Reggi will spend his twenty first birthday together with his family members, however mentioned, “It’s not only a regular birthday. Everybody celebrates their birthday the identical approach, however I’ve a distinct relationship with my birthday. I discovered my very own methods to have a good time it.”
He additionally acknowledged that his story may have been very completely different, noting that many infants have been born after their fathers perished within the terror assault. “We’re so grateful it labored out this manner,” Reggi mentioned. “It didn’t work out the identical approach for lots of people”
Gracie Silva, born six weeks early on Staten Island on 9/11, finds watching the annual memorial ceremony and studying of the names on TV a troublesome dissonance of solemnity and celebration.
“It’s bizarre,” mentioned the senior finding out physiology on the College of Scranton. “In fact I’m unhappy, but it surely’s additionally the day I have a good time. However for thus many individuals, it’s the worst day for them.”
Her mother Marylynne’s water broke within the pre-dawn hours that day. That meant her dad, Naveen, was by his spouse’s facet on the former St. Vincent’s Hospital in Staten Island, as a substitute of heading to work as a pc technician at American Specific on Liberty Avenue.
His regular commute would have had him passing by the WTC round 8:46 a.m., the time the primary aircraft tore into the North Tower.
“I’m actually shut with my dad — he considers me his good luck attraction,” mentioned Gracie. “Every time he has one thing necessary arising, he at all times asks me to be there.”
“We’re very spiritual and we consider every part occurs for a cause,” mentioned Marylynne, a Roman Catholic. “Possibly it saved his life. He would have been there.”
With some 150 infants born in NYC’s main hospitals that day, some mild peaked by on one of many darkest days within the nation’s historical past.
“So many individuals misplaced their family members, it’s nothing to have a good time, however she represents new life,” added Marylynne. “It’s the one good factor about that day.”
Aaren Evans additionally arrived on 9/11, 9 days sooner than anticipated.
Her delivery meant that Arnold Evans, then an funding banker at JPMorgan Chase downtown, was getting acquainted together with his hours-old daughter at NYU Medical Heart in Midtown, relatively than heading to the workplace when tragedy struck.
“Generally I take a look at her and I’m wondering, ‘What did you come right here to inform us?’ I consider she saved her father’s life — you by no means know the place he may have been,” her mother, Joyce Evans, informed The Submit earlier than her daughter’s first birthday in 2002.
“Yearly on my birthday we now have a dialog about it,” mentioned Aaren, now a junior at Barnard School. “It’s at all times been an open factor – we discuss it.”
For Reggi, being a 9/11 child means his connection to the town is unbreakable. “I really feel like I’ll at all times wish to be in New York perpetually. The town is a part of who I’m and my story.”
