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Sep 10, 2006 9:07 am US/Eastern
Philadelphia Family Talks About Their 9/11 Grief
by Mary Stoker Smith
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Family members say keeping the memories alive, has helped them cope.
The same is true for one Philadelphia family. They are still grieving and healing from their loss.
"At first, it's like, no, there's no way that could be," explains Gil Ortale. "Nobody expected the towers to come down," he says.
Moments before the south tower came down Gil Ortale brother peter called their mother...and left a message saying something was terribly wrong.
"He sounded sad for the people in the first building, overwhelmed by what happened there," explains Cathy Ortale-Grimes, Peter's sister.
Then, moments later, right before Gil's eyes the unthinkable happened.
Gil recounts, "I saw the South Tower come down, and I was like no way, no way, he's gone."
Peter Ortale was just 37-years-old. When his siblings talk about him, immediately, you're introduced to an energetic, compassionate, competitive man, someone you'd be honored to know, and call a friend.
"It feels like it just happened," explains Cathy.
Born and raised in northeast Philadelphia, peter moved to New York for work. But he came back often. Family was everything to him.
"He was very tradition in lots of ways, and family values would be one of them," tells Gil.
The tight knit family describes their experience as an emotional rollcoaster, because, they say, there was so much confusion on the days after September 11th.
Cathy recounts, "On the morning of September 13th we got a message from the Red Cross. He's fine. He's here. We were all watching all the footage the people on the streets leave the building say "It looks like him, it looks like him."
Kathy says the Red Cross was running an open e-mail site, where people could leave messages for family members. When they received a message reading "Peter Ortale is okay" they assumed, their brother managed to get out of the building.
"So I think we felt like, he's got to be there," said Cathy.
"Lists were coming out, survivor, not survivor," Gil explains.
The entire family spent days at ground zero searching for peter, but found out the e-mail messages were wrong. The anguish they initially felt came back. And now, five years later, they still grieve.
"There's a big hole. It hasn't mended. I don't know if it ever will. You just have to re-think the whole family, because there's such a change," Cathy explains.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
