Changed by 9/11: Lindenhurst's Jennie Nedell

Jennie Nedell knows all too well about living in a post- world. She lost her father on that clear September day 10 years ago in the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Laurence Nedell had only been working a few months in Tower Two on the 102nd floor as an insurance underwriter for AON.

“My father called once the first plane hit. He said it was kind of crazy,” recalled Nedell, a Lindenhurst native. “Then over the loud speaker someone said, ‘Tower Two seems secure.’ That’s when he got off the phone. We told him to be careful, and that’s the last we heard from him.”

Nedell said her father was proud of his new job – it was the culmination of 10 years of passing annual and increasingly more difficult exams.

“He was looking to better his career so he could provide a better life for us, his family,” explained Nedell.

But after the events of that life turned “surreal.”

“It was like we didn’t comprehend what happened. We got posters with his name and face, and we went down to Ground Zero, local hospitals, the armory set up for families,” remembered Nedell.

As time passed surreal turned into reality, and she, her mom, Lorraine, and sister, Laura, tried to come together despite tensions. But eventually the relationship between the three women grew stronger and better because of her father.

“He was the glue of our family, and he wouldn’t have wanted us to quit. He would want us look forward,” she said.

Nedell is now looking forward and continuing a journey started right before her father died when he began helping her train 10 years ago after her first two kickboxing matches.

She’s now not only applying a decade of kickboxing experience to participate in, but to also orchestrate the at Long Island MacArthur Airport, where she works.

The event will be held September 10, starting at 5 p.m. and featuring 18 matches. Proceeds will benefit ’s September 11 Hometown Memorial between Cedar and Overlook Beaches. More information may be obtained by e-mailing rumbleontheramp@gmail.com.