By:Paul J. Condra
Dorota Zois rose early on Tuesday, Oct. 23, and prepared a breakfast of raw salmon, bagels and coffee. She wanted to get an early start in order to make it back from the Family Assistance Center in Manhattan set up to aid families of World Trade Center victims before her two children returned from school. It was her fourth trip to the FAC from her home in Lynbrook.
I'm going to ask why I haven't received my tickets to the memorial on Sunday (Oct. 28),she said. The one where they'll be giving out the urns.
She said she twice requested tickets for the memorial at Ground Zero that was six days away. Zois lost her husband, Paul, who was working on the 94th floor of Tower One at the American Express Office when the towers were hit on Sept. 11. Organizers of the memorial said the mass gathering would be another step toward closure, especially for people like Zois, whose husband's body had not yet been found.
Problems pile up
Her anxiety over whether she'd receive the tickets on time was just the latest of her rapidly-accumulating worries about her family's future. Seven weeks after the attack, families of the victims are in their darkest hour as the full impact of the catastrophe is brought to bear under the weight of a bureaucracy that to people in Zois' situation seems bent on hampering the relief effort.
As the hub for organizations assisting in the WTC aftermath, the FAC on Pier 94 in Manhattan, on the Hudson River at 55th Street, is a common destination for WTC victims. The question is, with all those charities scrambling to distribute some $1.2 billion in donations, how many times will aid-seekers have to return?
Zois was praying she wouldn't have to come back a fifth time. To increase her chances, she crammed every conceivable bill, record and certificate that had anything to do with her or her husband's life into a black leather bag, which she heaved over her shoulder as she headed for the 8 a.m. train.
This is what I have to carry with me every time. You never know what they're going to ask for,she said.
As always, Zois brought a friend; this time, a co-worker from Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica. Zois planned to return to work as a nurse the following day for the first time since the tragedy another reason she said she couldn't return again to the FAC.
On the train, Zois sat quietly and sipped her tea. A woman next to her read the newspaper about the U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan, the words America's Ordeal
