Washington area residents who lost a family member in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks said they felt relief upon hearing the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed, but doesn’t change their loss. Bianca Angelino Grimaldi, 34, whose fiancee Paul Ambrose was aboard United Airlines Flight 77 that struck the Pentagon, said after hearing the news Monday morning she felt numb.
“Right now it doesn’t take away any of the pain or make me feel any better,” she said. “I’m seeing others celebrating or very happy, but I’m sort of at a loss. I wish I could share in their elation.”
Jules Aronson, whose 50-year-old sister was aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center, called the capture a “tremendous” effort.
“I feel there’s a vindication. But it’s not complete,” he said. “It doesn’t really relieve me completely from her loss. But it’s a step.”
William Toti, who as a Navy captain at the Pentagon aided in rescue efforts directly following the attack’s bloody aftermath, said that day changed him forever.
“My daughter, who is 26 years old now, told me less than a month ago, you aren’t the same person you were, you are different now,” said Toti, with emotion in his voice.
“Maybe this will help bring us all some peace,” he added.
Others said it wasn’t the end of their fight.
“The fact that bin Laden is no longer capable of harming another family brings relief,” said Carie Lemack of the District, whose mother was killed in the World Trade Center. “But … his ideology is still very prevalent in some parts of the world.”
Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the terror attacks that killed more than 3,000 people, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday in a firefight with U.S. forces.
Aronson and his wife Nancy, like many victims’ families, have joined support and activist groups as they have coped with their loss. Nancy Aronson is an active member and officer of the Families of September 11 and Lemack co-founded the Global Survivors Network in 2009.
“It’s been a pretty intense 12 hours,” Lemack said Monday morning. “The mouthpiece of hatred is gone.”
