On 9/11, Lisa Luckett’s three children were 7, 4, and 4 months old. Her husband, Teddy, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald. He had survived the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. It took him 4 and a half hours to make his way down more than 100 flights of stairs, and Lisa remembers him coming home, covered in soot.
Now, 8 years later, she was rooting for rescuers to get them down to safety, in her heart, she knew Teddy was gone. His office was just below the fire. A fire department investigator told her months later that Teddy was asphyxiated very quickly in the 1,000 degree heat. Like 40% of the close to 3,000 who died at The World Trade Center that day, Teddy’s remains were never found. His employer, Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 that day, far more than any other company.
Lisa says oddly, she was prepared for Teddy’s death, partly because he survived one terror attack but also because her mother-in-law was obsessed with Teddy’s health. He was overweight and his mom always worried out loud that he’d die of a heart attack, prompting Lisa to stay awake at night, crying, fearing her husband’s death.