September 11th, 2001, like for many of you reading this, had a profound effect on me and how I viewed the country and our government. I didn’t pay attention to politics at all until the attacks on September 11th and now I am totally immersed. 

I have also been totally immersed in the stories of that day since it happened. I’ve watched just about every special on the attacks and read many books including a very thick 2-book series where I read the profile of everyone who died in the attacks that day. 

I wish I could remember the name of the books to recommend to you but it was a compilation from a newspaper with profiles of the victims – a paragraph or two about every one of them. I read them all.

The cold hard facts of what happened on September 11, 2001 can be overwhelming when you look at the data.

2977 people killed.

Victims were from age two to 85 years old.

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343 firefighters and paramedics died as well as 60 NYPP and Port Authority police officers.

658 of the people who died worked at one company – Cantor Fitzgerald.

291 bodies were found intact. 

1609 people lost a spouse or partner in the attacks.

3051 kids lost a parent.

200 funerals were attended by NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2001.

There was another Rudy who was important on September 11, 2001. His name is Rudy Mastrocinque. From Kings Park, New York, Rudy arrived early at his office in the World Trade Center that morning so he wouldn’t miss any of the soccer goalie clinic he’d be running later that night. 

Soccer was something for his kids but Rudy’s quick feet were noticed by a player’s parent and he went on to coach several of the kids’s teams.

Rudy was married to Meryl and at the time had two children, Peter, 11, and Amy, 16. Even though Rudy had what most people would call a stuffy job working as VP for property claims at Marsh & McLennan, Meryl said that he was a very funny guy.

Meryl talked him into buying a boat to relax on after long hours at work and he grew to love fishing.

Rudy never made it home.

He was only 43.

There are obviously many many other stories like Rudy’s and they tell the real story of September 11, 2001.