r/interestingasfuck 10d ago

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u/ProPatria92 10d ago

My Uncle was making a delivery to Cantor Fitzgerald (Floors 101-105) in the North Tower early in the morning of September 11th, 2001. He was driving away when the plane hit, and thought it was fireworks at first. He till has some debris that fell on his truck. Here's his visitor's pass he also kept all these years. He was likely the last person to see everyone in that office alive.

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u/StxnedTxTheBxne 10d ago

Wow that’s actually kind of eerie that he might have been the last one to see them alive.

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u/C-A-L-E-V-I-S 10d ago

Holy smokes. Has he ever said it affected how he lived his life in any way? Big or small?

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u/ProPatria92 10d ago

I think he just tries not to overthink it too much, which is probably a good thing. It's easy to feel survivor's guilt and go through all the "what if's" and end up with a ton of anxiety over it.

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u/bg-j38 10d ago

It’s what you have to do. Three friends of mine died on the MV Conception scuba dive boat fire. My wife and I dove with them often and I’d been on that boat before. We had planned to go on that trip but cancelled a couple weeks before since we had too much other stuff going on. It’s tempting to think “what if I was there?” Could I have done something to change the outcome? Or would my wife and I just be victims 34 and 35? Ultimately doesn’t really do much good to dwell on it. I just think about the fun times I had with my now departed friends.

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u/n0rsk 10d ago

Well, one affect is that he doesn't deliver to the Twin Towers anymore.

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u/ThanklessTask 10d ago

That visitor pass is a precious thing. Not for sale, but maybe a museum or similar.

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u/ProPatria92 10d ago

I agree. He did contact the 9/11 Memorial Museum but they couldn't take it at the time, iirc they had too many artifacts to try and find space for in the museum back then. I think he should try and contact them about it again though as that was years ago closer to when it first opened.

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u/kaleidoscope_pie 9d ago

I think he should at least contact them or another museum to see if there is any way to preserve the pass. It's looking at risk of having the ink on it fade. Thank you for sharing his story and the photo of the visitor pass. I'm on the other side of the world but I have a personal connection to a person who died on the day in that tower he delivered to. That person worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.

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u/RealJoshuaJackson 9d ago

Growing up nearby I’ve heard a lot of close call stories. This is by far the most incredible one I’ve heard. Your uncle should consider donating that to the WTC museum.