Kathy Ashton is relieved her son was not alone when the World Trade Center collapsed. Though Thomas Ashton’s body has not been found, his family has chosen to accept that he died that day, rather than endure the continued agony of hope.
Across the country, relatives and friends of victims in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have had to face the fact that their loved ones are gone.
Thomas Ashton
By Friday, after providing DNA samples, filing a missing person’s report and exhausting a two-week search for some sign of Thomas Ashton, his parents took on the dreaded task of applying for their 21-year-old son’s death certificate.
“We had to say, it’s over. And how do you say that about your child? How do you give up hope?” said his mother, Kathy. Ashton’s father, John, had frantically searched city hospitals after the terror attack on the World Trade Center. An uncle, who is a retired New York firefighter, and a cousin ran to the rubble that day and started digging.
At his home in Woodside, Queens, relatives and friends were fixated on television, watching the tragedy unfold on the screen to the simultaneous interruptions of their cellular phones ringing.
Last Sunday, Ashton’s two sisters, Colleen, 25, and Mary, 18; and Jackie, his girlfriend of 6 years, gathered with his parents to try to come to grips with the reality that the introspective and athletic young man would not be found alive, if at all.
“It was really living in a limbo. We were grieving, but we couldn’t grieve; we were hoping, but we couldn’t hope,” his mother said. “I still expect him to walk through the door at any minute.”
On Thursday, family members were sifting through photos to feature at a two-day “memorial wake” they are planning for Ashton next week. Devout Catholics, the family plans to follow the memorial on Oct. 6 with a memorial mass.
Sept. 10 was Ashton’s first day at electricians school. On his second day on the job as an apprentice with Local 3 in Manhattan, he was sent to the 95th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower to work alongside an electrician, and that’s where he was when the first plane hit.
Ashton was a political science major at St. Francis College in Brooklyn until May, when he announced to his parents that he was leaving college to become an electrician.
“He was determined to do this because he was impatient and really just wanted to start his life,” his mother said. “He and his girlfriend were looking forward to a future. He wanted to start making money and have a goal. The electrical industry gave him a goal to shoot for.”
The announcement was met with some objections from his parents, who urged him to finish working toward his bachelor’s degree. Following through with his promise to manage both endeavors, he had registered for college the night before the terror attack.
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This week, Ashton’s mother met her son’s coworkers for the first time. She said she found comfort attending a memorial service for the electrician working with Ashton on the day of the attack.
“I’m glad Tommy was with him at that time,” Kathy Ashton said. “I was so upset thinking that he was alone when this happened.”
Scott Powell
Scott Powell worked on computers at the Pentagon, but his first love was music.
The 35-year-old grew up in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Washington’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He composed songs, most of them rhythm and blues, and played more than a half-dozen instruments from piano to drums. He performed in several bands, and, with his twin brother, Art, started a production company. They called it Dem Twinzz Productions.
“He loved music. It really was his life,” said his other brother, Shaun. “Then he developed an interest in computers and that paid his bills.”
Powell’s mother, Catherine, said her twin sons began playing the drums at the age of 2. He later was trained classically on the string bass, she said. The twins, who were inseparable as children, eventually took jobs at the same firm, BTG Inc.
“Every time you saw one of them, the other wouldn’t be far behind,” she said. “That’s what I’ll miss the most. When I see Art, I’ll always be looking for Scott.”
Scott Powell, of Silver Spring, Md., was working as a civilian contractor for BTG in the Pentagon and was in his office when an airplane crashed through the wall, killing him. He was the only person in his office to die, Shaun Powell said. Art was in Europe at the time of the incident.
“Everybody escaped from the office but him. That’s really hard for me to accept,” Shaun Powell said. “Why him? I try not to think about it too much, because otherwise it will drive me crazy.”
David O. Campbell
David O. Campbell taught his two sons all too well how to play golf. Within a few years they were thrashing their old man on the links. But Campbell didn’t care, said his wife, Cindy.
“He was happy,” she said. “He loved hanging out with the boys, and all the boys’ friends. We have many boys (in the neighborhood) who consider him the dad.”
Campbell, 51, of Basking Ridge, N.J., began his career as an accountant, but he was no stereotypical bean counter. He was outgoing, playful and athletic, swimming for his high school and college teams, playing golf and tennis, taking the family on ski trips.
He eventually switched careers, selling bank stocks for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, a financial services firm with offices in the World Trade Center.
Cindy Campbell said family and friends are trying to keep Campbell’s social spirit alive.
“Now (neighborhood boys) are hanging out and he’s not here,” she said. “We’re all thinking how weird it is. It’s like we want Dave to walk around the corner with a beer in his hand.”
Dennis Cross
At age 60, Dennis Cross had spent nearly two-thirds of his life as a firefighter in New York City.
And retirement wasn’t on his calendar anytime soon.
“He wanted to be the first to put in 50 years on the job,” said JoAnn Cross, his wife of 37 years.
Along with so many of his brethren, Cross’ career was cut short Sept. 11. The battalion chief for Battalion 57, based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, was killed when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
His body wasn’t recovered until a week later.
“The first three days it was more than hell,” said his wife. “When they found him on the seventh day, that was such a relief because we could bring him home. So many of our friends haven’t been able to do that.”
As is common in the profession, fighting fires was a family affair. Cross’ father, Charles, was a New York firefighter, as is his only son, Brian.
Cross joined the department in 1963 after returning home from a two-year tour in Vietnam, where he served in an Army communications unit, JoAnn Cross said.
In the department, Cross was widely admired as a gutsy firefighter and, later, as a respected leader.
“He was a quiet guy, but powerful,” JoAnn Cross said. “When he made captain, they called him Captain Fearless.”
He was promoted to battalion chief in 1993.
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A frequent runner who kept himself in excellent shape, Cross was looking forward to competing in an annual 5K race around the Thanksgiving holiday in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Now, JoAnn Cross hopes to turn the race into a fundraiser for a local charity that aids burn victims.
Cross is also survived by three daughters and three grandchildren.
An estimated 3,000 mourners, mostly firefighters, attended Cross’ funeral Sept. 22 in Islip Terrace, Long Island, where he lived.