Reggi was born at 9:23 a.m., 36 minutes earlier than the primary tower collapsed.
J.C. Rice
These “miracle” infants are all grown up — turning 21 and reflecting on their solemn birthday, Sept. 11, 2001, once they saved their dads’ lives.
The infants had been busy being born that tragic morning, guaranteeing that their fathers wouldn't be of their downtown workplaces on the coronary heart of catastrophe.
As an alternative of crossing the bridge connecting the World Commerce Heart to his CIBC Oppenheimer workplace on the World Monetary Heart, Steve Condos was at NYU Medical Heart together with his spouse, Marika, who went into labor three weeks early. Their son, Reggi, was born at 9:23 a.m. — 36 minutes earlier than the primary tower collapsed.
It was “bittersweet” for Steve, who described the “juxtaposition of the circle of life, combating via the happiness and unhappiness of that day.”
“He’s the explanation I imagine in miracles,” Marika mentioned of Reggi.
“The timing was miraculous. Steve would have been at work,” mentioned the West Village mother of three. “Most individuals begin to cry. They are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, he most definitely saved your husband’s life.’”
Being born on 9/11 is a “very vital a part of my id,” mentioned Reggi, now a junior at NYU finding out music.
Steve and Marika Condos maintain their miracle child -- Reggi Alexander Condos.
Reggi Condos will flip 21 this yr on the tragic day that saved his father's life.
Steve Condos holds his child, Reggi.
Steve Condos had labored on the World Monetary Heart, however due to his son's delivery, was not at work that day.
When his mother and father first confirmed him the authentic Put up story about his entrance into the world, Reggi, who traveled residence from the hospital at three days previous with a police escort, internalized conflicting emotions.
“It at all times gave me this sense of how valuable life is — that something can occur at any time, and it is best to at all times take pleasure in life to the fullest whereas getting ready for something to occur,” he mentioned.
Being born on such a fraught day is ”one thing that I take with me in every single place,” Reggi mentioned, including that as a child he would spend time at a downtown firehouse close to his old-fashioned finding out the memorial to its bravest misplaced that day.
Reggi will spend his twenty first birthday together with his family members, however mentioned, “It’s not only a regular birthday. Everybody celebrates their birthday the identical manner, however I've a special relationship with my birthday. I discovered my very own methods to have a good time it.”
He additionally acknowledged that his story might have been very totally different, noting that many infants had been born after their fathers perished within the terror assault. “We’re so grateful it labored out this manner,” Reggi mentioned. “It didn’t work out the identical manner for lots of people”
Gracie Silva, born six weeks early on Staten Island on 9/11, finds watching the annual memorial ceremony and studying of the names on TV a tough dissonance of solemnity and celebration.
Daughter Gracie Silva informed The Put up that her father considers her "his good luck appeal."
Her father, Naveen Silva, would have sometimes been engaged on Liberty Avenue in the course of the assault if not for his daughter's delivery.
Silva is a senior finding out physiology on the College of Scranton.
“It’s bizarre,” mentioned the senior finding out physiology on the College of Scranton. “After all I’m unhappy, however it’s additionally the day I have a good time. However for thus many individuals, it’s the worst day for them.”
Her mother Marylynne’s water broke within the pre-dawn hours that day. That meant her dad, Naveen, was by his spouse’s aspect on the former St. Vincent’s Hospital in Staten Island, as a substitute of heading to work as a pc technician at American Specific on Liberty Avenue.
His regular commute would have had him passing via the WTC round 8:46 a.m., the time the primary aircraft tore into the North Tower.
“I’m actually shut with my dad — he considers me his good luck appeal,” mentioned Gracie. “Every time he has one thing vital arising, he at all times asks me to be there.”
“We're very spiritual and we imagine the whole lot occurs for a cause,” mentioned Marylynne, a Roman Catholic. “Perhaps it saved his life. He would have been there.”
With some 150 infants born in NYC’s main hospitals that day, some mild peaked via on one of many darkest days within the nation’s historical past.
“So many individuals misplaced their family members, it’s nothing to have a good time, however she represents new life,” added Marylynne. “It’s the one good thingabout that day.”
Aaren Evans additionally arrived on 9/11, 9 days sooner than anticipated.
Aaren Evans arrived 9 days early.
Arnold Evans was an funding banker at JPMorgan Chase downtown.
The practically 21-year-old Aaren Evans is now a junior at Barnard School.
Her delivery meant that Arnold Evans, then an funding banker at JPMorgan Chase downtown, was getting acquainted together with his hours-old daughter at NYU Medical Heart in Midtown, relatively than heading to the workplace when tragedy struck.
“Typically I have a look at her and I'm wondering, ‘What did you come right here to inform us?’ I imagine she saved her father’s life — you by no means know the place he might have been,” her mother, Joyce Evans, informed The Put up earlier than her daughter’s first birthday in 2002.
“Yearly on my birthday we've a dialog about it,” mentioned Aaren, now a junior at Barnard School. “It’s at all times been an open factor – we speak about it.”
For Reggi, being a 9/11 child means his connection to town is unbreakable. “I really feel like I’ll at all times need to be in New York without end. Town is a part of who I'm and my story.”
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