"Address Unknown"

Anne Marie Martino Cramer

3/30/54 ~ 9/11/01
47 years old

WTC 2

Dear Anne,

Hoo boy ... so today's 9/11 and well, you know what that means? Here we go again ...

Do I close up like a frightened turtle and choke back all the junk I want to cry and scream about, or do I act in mature, ladylike fashion and simply talk about it in subdued tones so as to please the masses? Point is, it's 9/11 and on this Tuesday morning six years ago, you rode the elevators up to your 90th floor office in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. You sat at your desk, put your purse in its worktime place, greeted your coworkers as if it were just another day, maybe you sipped your coffee and checked email and voice mail - or maybe you were reading the latest stats on your beloved Yankees... and then at some time throughout a most dreadful series of nightmarish happenings, you breathed your last breath. So today I'll remember, I'll talk about it, and I'll mourn over it ... quietly ... but nothing will stop me.

I will ignore all the people who get verbal and shook up when someone chooses to remember and to spend this particular date each year in reverence and with moments of grief. There are a lot of those lucky bastards out there ~ I suppose I can understand their ignorance on some level, though I wish they'd just shut up already. I've moved on dammit ~ but the memories will not. Not today, not tomorrow and I'm going to venture a guess ~ not fucking ever.

Oh yeah, and get this ... there are people all over the world and even right here in the States and I know you won't imagine this but even right in NYC itself, who think it's overly maudlin to still hold official memorials and such for the victims of 9/11. This group of folks is just plain tired of hearing about the whole ordeal. They're tired of hearing about people still mourning over their losses - tired of hearing the word "terrorism" and even the simple word "attack" ... can ya stand it? I mean, maybe it feels like it's unavoidable in the news on this day ... and maybe even during other times of the year too - but to me the only real purpose it serves for those who are loud about their disgust and impatience is that it shows who the lucky ones are. I'm just guessing they either weren't too close to the situation or didn't lose a loved one.

Well Anne, Anna, Annie ... Anne Marie, it's time to close up and move along. All day though, I will quietly wonder about many things. What could have or would have been different if there had been no attack and if 9/11 really was just another day?

Got to go now. I miss you, my little Italian friend.

Always,
Carol

Annie Facts

She was an incredible softball/baseball/stickball player in her youth

Anne was quite proud of her Italian heritage

She was a twin - her brother Tony still lives in the same house where they grew up together (two doors away from my own childhood home)

She loved Snoopy or anything Charlie Brown-related

Anna was very proud of her older sister, Pat and when she and I were little kids, we used to argue with one another about which of us had the most beautiful older sister. haha ... I laugh at this one because we surely did have ourselves some 'noisy' arguments.

She and I spent many of our teenage weekends down at the Jersey shore

She worked at exactly ONE job ever since graduation from high school - this was the same company she was working at the day she died - that's almost 30 years

I remember thinking that Anne was completely fearless when we were high school age.

Anne was related to many people in and around Hoboken NJ, one of them having been Frank Sinatra himself.

She was only about 5 ft 3 inches tall. She had lovely, very thick, very dark brown hair.

She loved to sing and one of her favorite early 70s bands was the Doors (her twin brother could precisely imitate Jim Morrison's voice)

I think it's very neat that the street where I grew up has been renamed in her honor.

I made this little list because these are the kinds of things they don't include in obituaries or victim directories. Thanks for taking the time to read it.