BWW Reviews: AN UNBROKEN BOND: The Untold Story of How the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald Families Face the Tragedy of 9/11 and Beyond by Edie Lutnick

What more can be said about 9/11 and the families who lost loved ones on that horrific day? Well, as it turns out, there is a lot more to learn.

Edie Lutnick, author of An Unbroken Bond: the Untold Story of How the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald Families Faced the Tragedy of 9/11 and Beyond, is the sister of Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees on 9/11, including their brother, Gary. She finds herself in an unenviable position: a survivor who must put her own grief aside to help thousands of people work through their own.

Edie becomes a full-time, unpaid family advocate, navigating the minefields of media, politicians, and the public. She is tapped to run the charitable arm of Cantor Fitzgerald that not only distributed profits to the surviving families, but worked hand in hand with them to get their lives back on track.

These are people who were dismissed by their own civic leaders (Mayor Bloomberg does not make any friends here). Some of their concerns may seem silly to you, but to those who lost family members when the towers fell, they were gut-wrenching.

Can you imagine getting a package in the mail, containing a recording of your son's panicked 911 call from his office that morning - a package that arrived with no explanation of what was in it? Now can you imagine that recording being released to the press without your knowledge or permission?

Can you imagine national charities set up to solicit and distribute funds to the victims' families that decide to keep the funds to bolster their own bottom line? And can you imagine the person in charge of one such fund deciding that your dead husband made a lot of money already, so you didn't deserve as much compensation as someone else? Yes, some of the Cantor victims made very good money. But they were gone, and that income was not going to be replaced any time soon. Money - as many critics suggested - should've made the families happy.

Can you imagine a phone call notifying you that bone fragments from your dead mother have been identified and are yours to pick up? Can you imagine another call...and another...and another?

She became a therapist, ombudsman and advocate for thousands. Politicians made public promises that were dismissed in private, but she kept going, representing sometimes conflicting stances even within the Cantor Fitzgerald family. At the risk of her own health at times - physical and emotional - she put their needs first, last and always.

But her story is difficult to read at times. The lack of common sense and basic human decency - seen far too often, especially from bureaucrats and politicians - is damning and heart-breaking. There are many who have publicly criticized the families as selfish and demanding. I'll leave it to you to decide.

My hope for her, is that almost 12 year later she can finally find the peace she helped provide for so many of the Cantor Fitzgerald families.

To post a comment, you must register and login.