Every year, I participate in the 2996 Project. We remember the victims of 9/11 through tributes on our blogs.
I was asked to write about Claudia Martinez Foster. I have been doing this for many years. Here is the post.
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On September 9, 2001, Claudia was a twenty-six-year old newlywed who had babies on her mind. She went to work, one beautiful morning, as an assistant broker at Cantor Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, she never returned home to her husband and family. If you read the tributes and search for her name on Google, you can feel excruciating sense of loss.
Here is her biography from The NY Times.
As the oldest in a family of girls, Claudia Martinez Foster promised her parents she would always look after her three younger sisters. One day, she told them, she was even going to give the Martinez family its big wish: a baby boy. Married almost a year, the 26-year-old assistant broker for Cantor Fitzgerald had already begun, with her husband, to pick out baby names. They were planning to buy a house and start a family later this year. She liked the name Carlos, in honor of her father. Her husband could not decide.
“My daughter was a true family person,” said Blanca Martinez. “She was proud to be the big sister, always helping me with my youngest, taking her to the movies, bowling, shopping. She liked to call what she did ‘sister power.’ ”
Watching such a young, promising life fade away has made the grieving even more trying. “She has so much to live for, and to go like this,” Mrs. Martinez said. “I pray for God to give me strength to accept her death. But as a mother I don’t know how to let go. I want to keep hoping for a miracle.”
Our deepest sympathies and condolences are offered to the Martinez and Foster families. Years later, Claudia is not forgotten.
Additional condolences to those who lost family and friends at Cantor Fitzgerald. We remember you, too, on this very tough day.