'We Never Get Over It, But We Get On With It': Former Scarsdale Resident Remembers 9/11, Late Husband

On Aug. 21, 2001, a pregnant Jennifer Brennan moved to Scarsdale with her husband, Tom, and their 17-month-old daughter, Catherine. Although Tom Brennan, a 32-year-old investment banker with Sandler O'Neill, often traveled for business, the family had spent the Sunday afternoon prior to Sept. 11 shopping for furniture to fill their new home. 

Two days later, Tom Brennan journeyed to his firm's Manhattan-based office, located in the World Trade Center's South Tower. It was the only day that week he was scheduled to be in the office. 

"I spoke to him that morning," said Jennifer Waterhouse, who remarried investment adviser Lawrence Waterhouse III in 2008. "A plane had just hit the North Tower, and he had called me to say that he was OK. I turned on the TV and saw what had happened and said, 'You need to get out of there.' He said that they were telling them not to evacuate and to stay put. That was the last time I talked to him." 

The last person Tom Brennan spoke to was his brother. It was right after 9 a.m., and Tom Brennan was in the midst of leaving the building. At 9:03 a.m., a plane hit the second tower. 

Jennifer Waterhouse remained in Scarsdale with Catherine and her son, Thomas More Brennan, Jr., who was born on Oct. 24, 2001 and underwent open-heart surgery two days later. A week later, a healthy baby Thomas returned home from the hospital. Today, Thomas is nearly 10, and Catherine, 11. 

"For someone new to the area, it quickly felt like home," Jennifer Waterhouse said about the Strathmore neighborhood bordering Scarsdale and Yonkers, where she lived before relocating to Edgewood in 2006. "I had moved there two weeks beforehand, and strangers were knocking on my door. Their generosity and kindness was just incredible. They quickly became close friends and people to depend upon. It really helped Catherine and me get through the beginning stages." 

Three doors down from Jennifer Waterhouse, another neighbor had also lost his spouse in the World Trade Center attacks. Neighbors banded together in support, bringing food, providing child care and even establishing a monetary fund for the two. 

Catherine and Thomas Brennan were later enrolled in Scarsdale Friends Nursery School, where Thomas became close with the son of fellow Edgewood residents Kevin and Angela Waterhouse. Jennifer Waterhouse would eventually marry Kevin's brother, Lawrence, in 2008 — making the two boys cousins as well as friends. 

Jennifer and Lawrence Waterhouse moved to Chappaqua later that year with Catherine, Thomas, and Jennifer's two stepchildren, Anna and Larry Waterhouse. "The four children are incredibly close and refer to each other as brother and sister," Jennifer Waterhouse said. "We're incredibly blessed." 

While neither Catherine nor Thomas remember their father, the family, who remained a threesome for seven years before Jennifer married Lawrence Waterhouse, frequently discussed Tom and displayed his pictures around their house as the children grew older and became aware of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2003, several former college classmates of Tom Brennan, a 1991 alumnus of Boston College, approached Jennifer Waterhouse wishing to form a memorial fund. Together, Tom Brennan's friends and family started the Thomas M. Brennan Memorial Foundation, which provides tuition assistance at Boston College for students in need of financial aid.

The Thomas M. Brennan Memorial Foundation has graduated four scholars, according to Jennifer Waterhouse, and the endowment has grown large enough to grant two scholars $8,000 a year. Additionally, the foundation will be hosting its ninth annual golf tournament at Harbor Links Golf Club in Port Washington, N.Y. on Sept. 30. 

Jennifer Waterhouse uses her husband's memorial fund not only to provide educational support to Boston College undergraduates, but also to preserve Tom Brennan's legacy for his children. "It's stories from friends and family that allow them to get to know their father. By being involved with the foundation, they learn the stories. That's how they learn what kind of man their father was," she said.  

As the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks approached, Jennifer Waterhouse said she was peppered with questions and comments from friends, family and media. While "incredibly appreciative" of the support, she does not feel as though the 10-year marker retains special significance for her or her family. "An anniversary is obviously a time to reflect on events," she said. "But we live with [Tom's death] 364 other days of the year." 

In lieu of attending one of the various memorial ceremonies scattered throughout the New York City metro area, Jennifer Waterhouse will instead attend mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Scarsdale with her children and the Brennan family — the parish she and her husband had decided to join after attending a service the Sunday before Sept. 11. Afterward, Catherine and Thomas will slip on their knee guards and cleats and spend the remainder of the day chasing a soccer ball across a field. 

"The kids want to play in their soccer game later in the afternoon," Jennifer Waterhouse said. "And that's what we're going to do."

Although Jennifer Waterhouse now lives in Chappaqua, she said that she remains in contact with friends from both Strathmore and Edgewood — communities in which she felt "very safe and protected." 

"It's incredible, the entire network of people who were there for us. They helped us to — well, not get over it — but continue to move on and live our lives," Jennifer Watehouse said. 

"We never get over it. But we get on with it."