Meltzers Grow Closer After 9/11

Larry Meltzer was hard at work on a business trip some 800 miles away in Kentucky on Sept. 11, 2001. In an "instant," the Syosset resident said workers took him aside and asked him to come upstairs to watch what was on TV.

"I just knew something was terribly wrong -- then I saw it," Meltzer said after seeing the second plane hit the World Trade Center. "It was all in a flash."

Meltzer, 42, had a brother, Stuart, who worked at the top of the tower at a new job as an energy broker for Cantor Fitzgerald.

Larry and his friend Michael drove all the way up to Massachusetts to pick up his parents, Zachary and Joyce. From there, they went down to Syosset to meet up with Lisa, Stuart's wife. Together as a family, they prayed for the best.

"[Stuart] said to Lisa, 'There was a plane that hit the building...I don't think I'm going to make it. I love you,'" Larry said.

Soon after, Jake Meltzer, 3, and Dylan Meltzer, just 6 months, would be left without a father.

The Move to Syosset

This Sunday will be 10 years since Stuart Meltzer was killed in the 9/11 attacks. To Larry and Rachel, Stu's parents Joyce and Zach, his brother Kenny and his wife Lisa, the lost decade feels like a lifetime.

Yet other times, Larry says it can feel like just minutes.

"I feel like [Stu] can walk in the front door sometimes, like nothing has changed," Larry said. "But in other ways, it's been an eternity."

Larry and Stu were huge sports fans, often traveling together to Boston to cheer on their two favorite teams -- the Red Sox and the Patriots. Stu was a standout baseball player for the University of Michigan -- made evident by the talent his two sons currently display.

"We always talked on the phone, went to games together," Larry said. "He was my best friend."

Following the attacks, Meltzer and the family made the decision that family was "more important than anything." After living in New Jersey since 2000, visiting Lisa and the boys quite often, they packed up and moved back to Long Island in 2007 to be closer to them.

'A Model of Family Comittment'

Rachel said that Larry has been "very involved" the boys' lives. He's coached their little league baseball and soccer teams, tells them stories of their dad, and is a role model for them. The boys have grown up with a tremendous support system.

Even more impressive is that Larry and Rachel have four kids of their own to handle -- Ryan, 8, Max, 6, Rosie, 3, and Sam, 3.

"I think the biggest thing is, what an incredible model he has been to family commitment," Rachel said. "Cause you can say it as much as you want but if you don’t do it, it doesn’t mean anything."

Larry said he just wants Jake and Dylan to have a normal life.

"We've just tried to help Lisa all that we've can," Larry said. "She's done a great job. No kid should grow up without having one of his parents."

But he also doesn't want them to forget about Stuart, their real father.

"I can never fill the shoes," Larry said. "Just try to help pick up the pieces around them."

The Boys are Growing Up

Jake, now 13, started eighth grade this week at H.B. Thompson while Dylan, 10, started fifth grade at A.P. Willits. The family said the boys were forced to grow up real fast following the tragedy.

"They don't have much to grasp on, just Lisa and Larry telling them stories and my parents telling them," Rachel said. "[Lisa] was strong after 9/11, letting them know that dad would not be coming home. It was very hard."

Just as hard has been big family events in the decade without Stu. The family recently celebrated Jake's bar mitzvah, where a montage displayed pictures of Jake growing up with his father.

"It makes it real for them -- they want to be connected to him," Larry said. "For me, I just felt the void for them."

You won't find Larry on business 800 miles away anymore -- he now works from his Syosset home. 

"The remarkable thing," Larry added, "is that a bunch of good things have come from a bad situation."