Pocono News Section

9/11 Survivors Remember Friend

9/11 Survivors Remember Friend - Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 3:07PM EST

Reported by: Laurie Monteforte
Thursday, Sep 11, 2008 @ 03:07pm EST
TANNERSVILLE, MONROE COUNTY - The official death toll for the September 11th attacks is 2,751 but if you ask some survivors they'll say the number should be much higher.

Many people escaped the World Trade Center Towers, but not the terror. "You cope a little better but it's never easier," said Colleen Onacilla.

Even now, seven years later, it claws at them. Just this week a Pocono survivors group lost a member. Terry Hillard was 52 years old.

Her friends say she escaped the towers but the dust gave Terry a lung disease that eventually claimed her life. "God got her home that day and God got her through to her daughter's graduation. And then he decided to call her home," said Onacilla.

Each year the survivors visit a memorial garden in Tannersville. This year, Terry's absence left a space in their hearts. Her good friend Elizabeth Neals said, "She loved everyone and everything around her. Terry was giving."

Even though Terry will never visit the garden again. Her friends wanted to make sure she'd always be remembered there. They placed a rock painted with her name at the place where she found so much comfort and peace. Neals said, "She always said 'we're gonna get through this. We're gonna fight this.'"

Friends believe she may have won her fight if the government helped survivors with more of their health issues. "There are a lot of us that are still out here that are gonna die. We need help," said Neals.

She also said Terry and anyone else who died because of complications from September 11th should be counted in the official death toll. "They're victims no less so than the people that died immediately," said Onacilla.

For people afraid to lose more friends and family, the terror of September 11th is far from over. "Today my thought was how many of us are going to be standing here ten years from now," said Neals.

Another member of that survivors group was also missing Thursday. Louise Thompson cannot walk. she fell when a plane hit the tower she was in. Her back has never been the same since.