NEW YORK — When Anthoula Katsimatides recalled her brother’s 9/11 death on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center, she spoke of inspiration.
The actress/writer/producer, at the annual lower Manhattan memorial for the victims of the terrorist attack, thanked sibling John for redirecting her life from the afterlife following the Cantor Fitzgerald broker’s death on Sept. 11, 2001. He was just 31.
“Everything I was doing gave me the feeling that my brother Johnny was with me — ‘You got it, kid,’” she said Saturday, addressing her fellow mourners and a national audience at the site of the attacks.
“His loss helped shape me into who I am today,” she continued. “And I know it made me a better person. I came here, yes, with tears in my eyes but also a really happy heart, to say over the last 20 years I have learned to live out loud, just the way my brother taught me.”
She spoke in the midst of dozens of family members reading the annual litany of loss, the names of all 2,753 victims from that bright Tuesday morning two decades before, their enduring pain and grief still evident.
They stepped up in pairs, standing side by side as the names of the departed echoed through the quiet crowd for nearly four hours. Many ended their appearance with the words “God bless America.”
Some others were not yet born on Sept. 11, 2001, part of an entire generation born and raised across the last two decades.
One recalled her namesake uncle, FDNY Lt. Jeffrey Walz, in an emotional eulogy for the second-generation firefighter.
“My hero and my guardian angel,” she said. “Although I never got the privilege to meet you, so many people tell me I remind them of you in so many ways. And I’m so honored to have your name as my middle name. We love you and miss you.”
Frank Dominguez, brother of 14-year NYPD veteran Jerome Mark Patrick Dominguez, said his sibling was never too far away during the past two decades.
“No one could really take you away from us, and you’ve been with us every moment since,” he said. “You’d be really proud of your nephew and niece.”
The sister of Bart Ruggieri, another Cantor Fitzgerald victim, spoke fondly of his life and sadly of his death.
“We remain forever inspired by his spirit, embodied in his favorite quote: Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away,” she said.
Katsimatides spoke for many when she recalled picking up the mantle left behind by her sibling: His larger than life personality, his ability to make people laugh.
“I loved and admired those things about him, and I began to emulate them,” she said. “It made me feel like I was picking up a baton he left for me.”
