On 9/11, Anthoula Katsimatides was 29 years old, working for then-New York Governor George Pataki’s community affairs department. Because there was an event the night before, Katsimatides was allowed to report to work later in the morning. A phone call from a cousin in Greece awakened her, asking where Anthoula was and if she was ok. Confused by the questions, her cousin directed her to turn on the TV.
That’s when she learned about the attack on The World Trade Center. Her 31 year old brother worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, but Anthoula didn’t know he worked at The World Trade Center. She had no idea his office was 2 to 6 floors above where the plane hit the tower. All she knew was John worked on Wall Street, a nickname for Lower Manhattan.
It was a phone call from another brother, George, that alerted Anthoula that John was in one of the Twin Towers. The large Greek family gathered in Queens at her parents’ home. They all held out hope that John would make it out. Another brother had died just a year ago. It couldn’t happen again.
For a full month, the family refused to give up. Maybe John had amnesia and was wandering the streets. A call came from a man identifying himself as John’s doctor. Anthoula cried out, “Where is he?” The doctor apologized, explaining he had been treating John for his cancer. It was totally treatable but after the family lost another brother, John didn’t want to worry them, instead leaning on friends for support.
The doctor told Anthoula that John was such a joy, making the terminally ill patients laugh. When they lost Michael the year before, John told Anthoula to stop wearing black, that she should dress in colors and enjoy her life. Anthoula never wore black for John. She wore red and pink, as he instructed, as she did when this segment was recorded.