Samantha Egan

When I think about September 11th, it's almost more than I can take. The scope of it is such that it can barely be comprehended. And because of the level of devastation, it's easy to forget that for each person killed, there's a family left behind who misses them. Friends who will no longer share a laugh, or a beer, or a baseball game with someone they've spent years or months getting to know, and in many cases, most cases, getting to love. I hate that I've been one of those people who allowed myself to become numbed by those ubiquitous images on nearly every TV channel--the smoking twin towers, the burning Pentagon, the crater in the Pennsylvania field, where the intercession of a few heroic passengers kept a horrible day from becoming just that much more horrible. There were a great many heroes that day.

From what I can tell, Samantha Egan was not a hero. She was simply an ordinary person going about her day. She went to work figuring she'd have plenty of time to talk to her family. To get married one day. To have a family of her own. Instead, she died with her older sister and a couple thousand other people, in what was ultimately a failed attempt to break our country's back.

The following is excerpted from the New York Times:


Lisa and Samantha Egan, sisters and co- workers, did most things together: playing sports, visiting their parents on Long Island, collaborating on a Mother's Day gift. This year, they gave their mother, Elizabeth, a photo album of their moments together.

When Lisa, 31, heard there were jobs available at Cantor Fitzgerald, where she had worked for four years as a human resources manager, she suggested that Samantha, 24, apply. About seven months ago, Samantha started working steps away from Lisa.

And so their father, David, says he knows that in the minutes after the plane hit their tower, Lisa and Samantha were together. "They would have been seeking one another immediately," he said from his home in Rocky Point, N.Y. "It would have been the first thing in their minds. 'Where is Samantha?' Lisa would have said. 'Where is Lisa?' Samantha would have thought. I know they are together."

Lisa, the oldest of three, had a master's degree in psychology and was looking for another job. Samantha, who had gone back to college, planned to finish school and find work that would tap her business experience and her interest in charitable work.

"My girls," Mr. Egan said, "were outgoing, bright, articulate, giving, loving, caring. Not just my flesh and blood."



It would be really easy to go on for pages and pages. To rant about terrorism and the inevitable payback. But instead, just look at that picture of Samantha (left) and her sister Lisa (right) and offer a prayer for their families to find peace.