The children of 9/11
There were 3,051 children who lost a parent on September 11 2001. In the first of three episodes examining the reverberations of the attacks 20 years on, three of that group reflect on the weight of that private grief – and what it meant to grow up with it in the media spotlight
Mike and Dan Friedman were 11 years old when their father, Andrew, died on 9/11. Robyn Higley, whose father Robert also died in the attacks, was yet to be born.
The loss they suffered is unimaginable to most of us – but they are part of a group of 3,051 children who lost a parent, 105 of them when they were still in the womb. Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks, in the first of three episodes examining the consequences and reverberations of that day, Robyn, Mike and Dan describe what it was like to grow up with their private grief so inextricably tied to a seismic global tragedy. And Ed Pilkington, the chief reporter for Guardian US, tells Michael Safi about the meaning of the anniversary to the bereaved, and how tokens their parents left behind and their pride in dealing with the loss has helped sustain them in the two decades since.
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