World Trade Center Tragedy Touches Community

By HANNAN ADELY

Norwood Resident Recalls Escape from Towers

In a matter of seconds, Rafael Perez can turn from laughter to tears. By nature, he is a joker, an optimist. But his recent run-in with tragedy makes him quietly reflective and sad without warning.

Perez is still counting his blessings since he got out of the World Trade Center just minutes before it came tumbling down. An employee of Ahasi Bank, Perez was working on the 60th floor of Tower 1, when the first of two hijacked planes hit his building. "We didn't hear the impact," he said. "What we felt was it trembling. The trembling continued and the building actually started swaying."

Perez and thousands more workers started the descent down the stairs, not knowing the severity of the situation. Around the 20th floor, Perez saw badly burned individuals being escorted down the stairs and that's when he began to worry. He rushed out of the building, and as he ran north, the towers collapsed behind him.

Meanwhile in the Bronx, Perez' wife, Nancy, was panicking. After seeing the planes hit the towers on TV at the employment agency on Williamsbridge Road where she works, she fell to the floor crying and screaming. She thought to herself, "How am I going to tell my kids?"

Her husband called her on his cell phone at around 11:30 a.m., and the rest, Nancy said, was like a movie. As he trudged home from downtown Manhattan, as most subways were closed, Nancy hurried in her car to meet him halfway. They met on 103rd Street and Willis Avenue. "He dropped his bag and ran over to me," she said. "I got out of my car and we just ran to each other in the middle of the street."

When Perez recalls the day of infamy, what makes him sad is remembering his heroes, the firefighters. "They were walking up while we were walking down," he said. "I joked with them, 'I'm gonna tell Giuliani to give you a raise.'"

He also becomes numb with tears when he thinks of his 7-year-old son, Christian, a student at PS 280. Nancy and Rafael thought Christian had a hard time understanding what had happened and that he hadn't been much affected by the tragedy. But days later in class he drew a picture of the Twin Towers with a message that read, "I'm sad my daddy almost died."

Perez feels lucky to be safe with his family and even started back at work on Wednesday in his company's new uptown offices. He spent the weekend after the tragedy praying with family in Brooklyn, and visiting fire stations to thank the firefighters. On Monday, he went back to the scene of the crime. "It was really sad to see, but it helped me for my own peace of mind," he said.

Wedding Won't Be the Same

By HANNAN ADELY

Last week, when Rose-Marie Ifill imagined walking down the aisle of Bedford Park Congregational Church on Saturday, Sept. 22, she knew her wedding wouldn't turn out exactly as she had planned.

Due to the tragic events of Sept. 11, Ifill, a Norwood resident, didn't feel much like celebrating. "The spirit is not there anymore," said the bride, who considered postponing her wedding. "You almost feel guilty having fun."

The show will go on, but without a few beloved guests. Relatives who live in Canada and Oklahoma are not coming. Like many other travelers, they are afraid to fly right now. Others coming from Boston and upstate canceled their flights and are opting for the long drive.

Even the bride and groom canceled a honeymoon trip to Las Vegas, and will instead travel to Atlantic City in New Jersey.

Pre-wedding jitters hit Ifill hard. She was worried not about her wedding vows, but about her relatives who work downtown and others who live in Washington, D.C. "It's just a depressing thing," she said. "Friends of friends are missing."

To adapt to the somber circumstances, Ifill said she will simplify the wedding a bit. She decided that no hard alcohol would be served, to quash any dangers of drinking and driving. She will also have a special collection during the wedding Mass to go to families of the victims. "It's strange to have a collection at a wedding, but I'm personally going to ask for it," she said.

Other elements will remain the same. "We will still have dancing," Ifill said. "We just simplified it a lot. You have to keep on going, but it's not the same."

Norwood Resident Misses Friend She Called 'Brother'

By JORDAN MOSS

Norwood resident Awilda Ortiz remembers the day before Sept. 11 as a "very weird day." She wasn't feeling right and when she came home in the evening she had a drink, "something I never do," she said. She listened to music late into the evening and before she realized it, it was 7 o'clock in the morning. So she decided to take the day off and finally turned in at 8.

But then the phone rang only a couple of hours later. A friend was calling with terrible news. "My very good friend's in a panic telling me that Wayne's missing [and that there's been] an explosion at the World Trade Center," Ortiz recalled. "I turned the TV on and the moment I saw it my heart sank."

Wayne Russo is not a blood relative of Ortiz' but may as well be. She referred to him as her brother and affectionately called him "Uncle Wayno." "He was part of my family," she said. They met a decade ago at Marsh USA, the company where Russo, a Union, New Jersey resident, worked. Ortiz still works for the firm but transferred to their midtown location from the 100th floor of One World Trade Center only a few months ago.

Ortiz said she, Russo, and two other friends, Lisa Garcia and Annette Cruz, did everything together. "We were his three best friends, " she said.

Ortiz hasn't lost all hope that Russo won't be found, but she is readying herself for the worst if it comes.

"I'm trying to prepare myself so I won't find it a shock when we finally say goodbye," she said.