Sep 11, 2008 2:08 pm US/Eastern
Middletown Marks 7 Years Without Its 9/11 Victims
New Jersey City Lost 37 Residents At Ground Zero
MIDDLETON, N.J. (AP) ―
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Pedestrians walk by a memorial to a victim of the September 11 terrorist attacks next to Ground Zero September 11, 2008 in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A hot dog has become one of the sad symbols of Sept. 11, 2001 for Barbara Minervino.
It was the last dinner her husband, Louis, ate before he was killed along with thousands of others at the World Trade Center.
"The last meal Lou had wasn't one I made for him," she said. "It was a hot dog he ate at Yankee Stadium. He went there on Sept. 10, and the game was rained out, and he came back home."
The homecoming would be the final one for Minervino, one of 37 Middletown residents to perish in the terror attacks. The toll is second in New Jersey only to Hoboken, which lost 57 people.
Both communities will be among those holding memorial services Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the terror attacks.
Hoboken's will take place on a Hudson River pier where many watched the tower fall in 2001; Middletown's will be in its memorial grove, a wooded area with monuments to the fallen near the train station where most of the victims were commuters who never made the return trip back home.
Louis Minervino was a senior vice president at Marsh USA Inc., part of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., the nation's largest insurance brokerage.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, he was in his 98th floor office in Tower One of the World Trade Center.
The clock in their Middletown home read 8:43 a.m. as he wrapped up what would be his last conversation with his wife. He told her he loved her, said he had to go, and wished her a good day.
She put down the cordless phone, took a sip of coffee and settled down in a chair to watch the "Today" show. Within minutes, Katie Couric announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.
Since then, she has endured painful, debilitating physical ailments including knee surgery and back and kidney problems. Her health always worsens in the two weeks immediately preceding Sept. 11.
"I find that I get sick, and I can't put my finger on it," she said. "And then I realize it's because I'm working up to it (the anniversary)."
Sept. 8, 2001 was the last day the Minervinos and their two daughters went out to dinner together. Sept. 10 was the day he went to his rained-out Yankee game. And Sept. 11 is the day everyone wants to know all over again how she feels.
In the seven years since her husband's death, Minervino has been forced to fend for herself, learning mundane things like how to change light bulbs in ceiling fixtures, when the trash has to be put out, how to balance a checkbook.
Until last year, she couldn't bring herself to watch the televised memorial ceremonies from Ground Zero. Now, she says, she watches.
"It's important for me to remember that Lou wasn't the only person who died that day," she said. "I will pray for all of them, as I know they are praying for us."
A deeply religious woman, Minervino had scheduled a Mass in her husband's memory at noon.
"I know I will be with him again, and that's what keeps me going," she said. "I like to think of this not as another year without Lou, but one year closer to being with him again."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
September 11, 2001: A Day Of Terror
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