A poignant story of 9/11 is being revisited 25 years after the terrorist attacks on the United States. On September 11, 2001, four planes were hijacked by members of Al Qaeda, two of which crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the deadliest terrorist attacks in U.S. history.
Among the thousands of people trying to escape Manhattan across the Hudson River were Jersey City Police Officers Elba D'Aiuto and her husband, Tony. They were committed to helping evacuees and the injured, but one moment of that day would forever remain in their memory.
Baby in the arms of the police officer
Elba recalls finding a baby on a ferry covered in dust and struggling to breathe. Thinking of her son, she picked him up and began cleaning his face and airways. "When I saw him, he was full of this black dust, so my instinct was to clean his nose, to help him breathe," she said.
The police officer tried to calm the child down, then handed him over to a paramedic. The baby was taken by ambulance to receive medical attention. But after that moment, Elba never heard from him again. He doesn't know who the child was, what happened to him, or where he is today. Another strong memory for the couple is of an injured firefighter whom Elba was helping on the ferry. He was trying to get back to Manhattan, worried about his team.
"I have to go to my people. They need me," Elba recalls him telling her. Despite efforts to convince him to stay and get treatment, the firefighter returned to Manhattan by ferry just before the second tower collapsed. The couple never heard from him again.
Today, 25 years after the tragedy, Elba and Tony continue to seek to learn what happened to the two people who touched their lives for just a few moments that day. For them, the photographs and memories of September 11 remain, but also an emotional connection that has not faded over the years. "This connection that I had with them, even for those few moments, will never be broken," Elba confessed.
