As a 17-year-old high school student in Starkville, Mississippi, Sheena Collum didn’t personally know anyone who was killed in the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.
But only a month later, the attacks would exact a personal toll.
Collum’s uncle Song Ho Park, one of the five children her grandmother had brought with her from Korea after being widowed, was devastated by the tragedy.
“My uncle Sung Ho was starting his very first business just two blocks away from the towers,” said Collum at the 25th remembrance ceremony in Maplewood. He had borrowed a lot of money to open a small cosmetics store. And after 9/11, he had lost everything. He lost the money, the merchandise, and the anxiety, the depression, the alcoholism, the grief. … On October 11, he passed away. My mom and my aunts told me that he died of a broken heart.”
“His name is not among the nearly 3,000 people we remember as victims of September 11, but for my family, his death will always be connected to this day.”
“Tragedy and loss reveal themselves in so many different ways,” said Collum.
“And 1,000 miles away from where I was that morning was a community that I did not yet know would one day be my amazing home. In South Orange, families were experiencing unimaginable tragedy of their own.”
Collum then paid tribute to Christopher Faughnan, Christopher Colasanti (born and raised in South Orange but lived in Hoboken at the time); and Donald Robertso, Jr.
“We remember them not simply for how they lived, but for how they lived and whom they loved.”
SEFD Captain Kevin Herbert, South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum, and South Orange Village Council members Patricia Canning, Jennifer Greenberg, Olivia Lewis-Chang and Hannah Zollman.
“Christopher Colasante was just 33 years old. Chris grew up on West End Road and attended Columbia High School where he was the captain of the soccer team and met his future wife, Kelly. Together they were raising two young daughters, Kara, 4, and Lauren, just 1. Chris was an athlete, a loyal friend, and someone who embraced life, but above all, he was a devoted father. On September 11, Chris went into work early at Cantor Fitzgerald for a very ordinary reason. He wanted to get home early to his family. He was on the 105th floor of the North Tower when the first plane struck. Today, we remember a kid from West End Road, a husband who married his high school sweetheart, and a young father who simply wanted more time with his daughters. We remember Christopher M. Colasanti.
“Christopher Faughnan was 37 years old and lived here in South Orange with his wife, Kathy, and her three young children, Sienna, Juliet, and Liam. Chris was a government bond trader, but those who loved him remembered him first as a husband and as a father. After work came art classes, gymnastics, ballet, soccer trips, um, going out for ice cream and children climbing all over their father. A tribute written about Chris after his death described him simply as quote, “A family first man.” On the morning of September 11th at about 8:30, Chris spoke with his four-year-old daughter then, Juliet. Minutes later, the North Tower was struck. Today we remember that ordinary conversation between a father and a daughter and all the conversations that should have followed.
“We remember Donald Walter Robertson Jr., known to family and friends as Don. He was just 35 years old. Don grew up in South Orange and attended Columbia High School. By 2001, he and his wife Karen were raising four young children, Michael, Matthew, Madison, and Kevin. His youngest was only 17 months old. Don also worked for Kantor Fitzgerald, but his greatest joy was being a father. After September 11th, his family needed a photograph of Don alone for his memorial prayer card. They struggled to find one. In almost every photograph, one of his children was sitting on him, climbing on him or wrapped around him. There may be no better testament to the kind of father he was.”
“Three men, three families, nine young children who lost their fathers, and three lives forever woven into the history of South Orange Twenty-five years later, we gather not only to remember what happened on September 11, but to remember who we lost. They were more than names engraved on a memorial, so today we speak their names and we tell their stories.”
Collum also reocognized “those who answered our call, our nation’s call in the hours, days, and years that followed September 11th. To our firefighters, our police officers, our many rescue squad workers, from the bottom of all of our hearts, thank you for what you do day in and day out. And to all of our servicemen and women, veterans, military families, thank you for your service and your sacrifice.”
Army veteran Christopher Collum and South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum.
The recognition of military service members was also personal to Collum.She introduced her brother Christopher Collum, “a veteran who answered his country’s call and served our nation in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. I’m very proud of you, big brother.”
Collum concluded, “May we remember not only the tragedy of September 11, but the extraordinary unity that followed it when a wounded nation stood together, cared for one another, and refused to be broken.”
