Gone But Not Forgotten: An Ashford Park Resident Remembers Friends Who Died Saving Others

It has been a decade since Cara Endriss, 37, lost friends Michael Brennan and Tommy Foley as a result of the tragedies of Sept. 11, but the pain is still raw and that day remains fresh in her mind.

Both men - who she described as "great guys who loved to have a good time and enjoyed helping others" - died while helping save people trapped in the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

It was a Tuesday. No clouds in the sky and about 77 degrees, she said.

Perfect - all but the low flying plane she noticed on her way to work in Midtown at the Colgate Palmolive Company.

“It sounded a little too loud and a little too close, but I quickly disregarded the anomaly.”

Shortly after arriving at work and logging on to her computer, Endriss learned from a friend that a plane hit one of the Twin Towers. She took note, but dismissed it as a small plane that may have hit the tower by accident.

“I looked at the damage on CNN.com and felt bad for my friend that was having her wedding on October 28^th at Windows on the World. I called her and we talked about how they would be able to make repairs in time for her wedding. We also thought that it was just a small plane that hit the tower by mistake. It was sad but we truly had no idea."

Shortly after that conversation, a co-worker informed her of more news - a second plane slammed into Tower 2.  "This was no accident", she remembered saying to herself.

“We all ran into a VP's office to watch the Today Show. That is where the terror unfolded,” Endriss said. “We saw the towers fall and no words can describe the horror, or the surreal feeling of those moments. Monuments that I had known and visited very often as a child had been destroyed. The bedrock of my existence had been shifted and broken.”

Endriss described the next few hours ahead as chaos and an emotional abyss. People were everywhere, she said. "Walking. Running, Everything was frantic, with no real direction," she said.

Most of her time was spent attempting to get cell service and locate friends and family.

“I called everyone I knew. The next morning, I got the call that my good friend and firefighter Michael Brennan was missing. I walked outside onto my front stoop and there was not a soul on the street. No sound. Nothing. You could literally hear a pin drop. It was something out of a movie. “

Later that day, Endriss learned that another friend and firefighter Thomas "Tommy" Foley was also missing.

"Things got bleaker," she said

Endriss described the months following the attacks being filled with "endless funerals and memorials." 

"I went to Mike and Tommy's memorials later that fall and they were the reasons for me to leave the city. Mike's memorial was in Queens and Tommy's was in Nyack, NY."

"We were all changed. We all went out to drink more often, didn't care too much about the future. Relationships broke off and some people moved away. But there were good things, too. Some relationships where strengthened and new beginnings arose. We were all lost for a long, long while but we found our way back to steady ground. We mourned and yet we lived."

Endriss remembers her childhood visiting the towers with her late aunt who worked in Tower 1 on the 55th floor. She was 7 years old,  and would spend the summers with her and go to work with her sometimes.

"Even as an adult, I spent time in those towers - salsa dancing at the Greatest Bar on Earth Thursdays nights, and various work related engagements brought me there from time to time. September 11 took them away from me and little part of me died that day.

Endriss lives in Ashford Park now with her husband and twin 3-year-old boys. She met him a few years after the attacks and moved here with him. After what she described as an 'unhealthy chapter' in her life ended, she said she knew that her new life in Atlanta with her husband would be healthy for her.

"NYC has come a long way since that day and eventhough we will all never completely heal, we have learned to accept the tragedy and the loss of life," she said. "Hopefully we will be able to forgive one day as well."