I normally decide to try and take a moment on every important day celebrated in our country to reflect on exactly what makes it special. While it’s no secret what makes Patriot Day and September 11 a day of remembrance, it is still important to me to expand on it the same. I decided to use my Patriot Day and this blog to write about the children that lost parents in the attacks. How many were there, and who are they? Where are they today? So with a little research, I was able to pull up a few articles and some videos that seemed a good fit. I hope that you find them of assistance as well.

 
How many children lost parents in the 09/11 attacks? According to *nymag.com, the estimated number of children who lost a parent in the attacks is numbered at 3,051.  Of the over 3,000 children, all of them were under the age of 18 (*source: The Independent)The average age of these “9/11 kids” was nine , but some of them were  babies, and some weren’t even born at the time of the attacks. View this video below and hear stories from those kids that were actually born on that September 11, 2001.
 
 
Who were they? As we know, these children were the kids of heroes and parents who worked different jobs effected by or related to the attacks. Their parents were firefighters, office workers in the World Trade Center, and employees at the Pentagon where a third hijacked aircraft crashed. Others were children of those parents who died when a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Some worked other jobs such as an executive chef who is mentioned by his child in the video below. 
 
What became of these children? The natural question when considering the sheer number of kids losing parents is, “what happened to them after the dust had settled?.” All of these children lost at least one and some both of their parents on September 11th. I enjoyed reading a post on some of their stories here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/911-ten-years-on-the-children-left-behind-2348904.html 
You can also check out this CNN documentary on these children from 2011:

Feel free to leave your comments and thoughts on these children and the tragedies. Let’s hope they live out their dreams and lives the ways they imagine. 

Resources/Links:
 
View the list of all the deceased here:

One thought on “When the smoke cleared for the “9/11 kids”

  • September 11, 2012 at 8:55 pm
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    Great information! In our remembrance, we think of the emergency responders and workers who lost their lives that tragic day but not so much the children and families that are still affected by 9/11. Thanks.

    Reply

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