September 16, 2009

‘He’s still with us’ in spirit, says woman who lost husband on 9/11

WESTFIELD, N.J. (CNS)—The phone rang. Diane Starita held her breath and sank to the floor at her home in Westfield. The voice on the other end of the line was her husband, Anthony. He told her he was trapped on the 106th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, surrounded by smoke and flames, desperately trying to find a way out. The brief conversation took place Sept. 11, 2001, following the deadly impact of American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. “Somehow he found a working phone,” she recalled in an interview with The Catholic Advocate, newspaper of the Newark Archdiocese. “He said: ‘I’m still here,’ meaning he was still in the building. He told me he loved me.” And then the line went dead. Anthony M. Starita, 35, was one of 685 Cantor Fitzgerald Securities employees—and 12 Westfield residents—lost on that dreadful day. Two planes hijacked by terrorists brought down the trade center’s twin towers and killed close to 3,000 people. The anniversary of the attacks is “a day for us to be together as a family,” Diane Starita said during an emotional interview Aug. 25 at Holy Trinity Church in Westfield. “We’ve all gone on with our lives, but it’s amazing how easily you’re brought back to the memories of that day,” Diane Starita said. “My children and I have a good life, but there are times when it’s hard for me to be ‘in the moment.’ Anthony’s missing, but he’s still with us.”