I’ll repost what I posted on Facebook
Four of us from my firm - Christine McNulty, John Moran, Bill Cline, and myself- were registered at the Risk Waters Electronic Trading conference at Windows of the World that morning, the restaurant and event space on the top floor of the north tower. I had a last minute conference call scheduled at 11am with a prospective client. I considered doing the call from the Trade Center but I knew cell phone service was spotty up there, and I wasn’t sure how private the pay phones would be. So I decided to stay home until after the call. Bill was similarly saved by a schedule conflict. Christine and John, who had flown in from London for the event, arrived on time. They perished that day, as did every attendee who had arrived by 8:46.
We often hear the stories of people who worked in the trade center every day but were saved by some dentist appointment or a kid’s first day of kindergarten. When I hear these stories I think of Christine and John, who had the very opposite experience. They should have been thousands of miles away, but fate intervened the other way. Christine left behind a husband and a five year old daughter. John a wife and two small kids. May they rest in peace.