Family of 9/11 Victim Has Plenty of Ways to Memorialize Their Loved One

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Galloway Patch is re-running the story in honor of the 14th anniversary of that tragic day.

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Margaret Jezycki-Alario’s death in the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 has had a lasting impact on those who knew her best. Affectionately known to her friends and family as Peggy, her death came as a shock to those who knew her.

“It was the last thing we ever expected,” her aunt, Anna Jezycki said.

Alario didn’t normally work in the World Trade Center, but was at a company meeting for Zurich North America, where she was the manager, on the 105th floor on that fateful day.

“We have no place to go,” Jezycki said. “There was never a body. There was never a viewing.”

Her family held out hope for a little while that the 41-year-old from Staten Island would still be around to celebrate her 42nd birthday just seven days later.

But her birthday came and went, and almost 10 years later, there is still no evidence to support her fate either way.

“We’re still without closure,” Jezycki said. “I pray for her every day. I know God has her now because she believed in her faith. God only picks the best flowers for her garden.”

The family had tee shirts made up that read, “In Memory Of” written across the top, above pictures of the World Trade Center towers and Alario’s face. They also have bracelets that read, “Peggy-Jezycki Alario, 9-11-01 WTC.”

Genine Jezycki Agnew, Alario’s first cousin, put a decal on the back window of her jeep that memorializes the World Trade Center, and has Peggy’s name written in the second tower

She also has two versions of the Portraits 9/11/01 book released by the New York Times, countless buttons, bracelets, tee-shirts, photos, beanie babies, a poster of all the faces of those who died on Sept. 11 that make up the twin towers, coins, a watch, sculptures, crystal, rubble and a St. Christopher bell, all memorializing the events of that day.

On Sunday afternoon, Agnew pulled out the Flag of Honor while at her mother’s home with her mother Anna Jezycki, her father, Joseph Jezycki and her brother, Joseph M. Jezycki Jr. The Flag of Honor has the names of every victim of the attacks, from those in the airplanes to first responders.

“I also have a dart board with bin Laden’s face on it,” she said, adding that she never opened it.

She also spoke at the first 9/11 memorial held after the attacks.

She loved Rod Stewart, and she was very religious and very family-oriented, Jezycki said. Rod Stewart was played at her memorial, and the words, “Forever Young,” are written under her picture at her Circle of Angels Memorial in New York.

Alario is survived by her husband of 18 years, James, and her two sons, James and Dante, who were ages 9 and 13 at the time of the attacks.

“At the time, we had no answer for the children,” Jezycki said. “Now they understand what happened, but at the time, they didn’t.”

Jezycki said the family was happy on May 1 of this year when President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden has been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan.

“We were all happy, but there’s still a lot more of them out there,” Jezycki said. “We’re more aware than we were before about terrorism, and the ones that did this will have to atone for it.”

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the attacks, she acknowledged that the attacks changed the entire country. She also wishes the patriotism the country felt in the days following the attacks hadn’t disappeared so quickly.

“People forget so fast,” Jezycki said. “And our boys in Afghanistan and Iraq need to come home. There’s no reason for them to be over there, anymore. Don’t blame it on 9/11; that’s through.”

On a personal level, the family still struggles with the fact that Alario is no longer with them.

Jezycki struggles with the fact that a person “goes to work and doesn’t come home,” as Alario did that day.

But mostly, she and her family just remember who Margaret Jezycki Alario was.

“She was a very gentle soul,” Jezycki said. “ … She was a good mother and a good niece.”