For Bill McGinly from Virginia, 7 and 11 are poignant numbers.
“Seventeen years ago [last] Friday, I was here in town on business, and Mark and I had lunch together,” he said referring to his son who was living in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“Then I gave him a hug, I got in the cab, and I waved to him out the back window—and that was it.”
McGinly never thought on Sept. 7, 2001, that it would be his last meal with his son.
“Seven is important to me because that’s the last time I spoke to him or hugged him,” he said.
McGinly was in a Chicago hotel room when the first plane hit. He got a call from a friend, whose son was on the phone with Mark.
“So we knew he was there and … I think that first plane just was what killed him.”
Mark worked in a company called Car Futures. His office was on the 92nd floor in the North Tower.
American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at around floors 93-99. Everyone on board and hundreds inside the building died.
According to McGinly, there were about 90 people on his son’s floor, none of whom survived.
“He was about four years out of college, he was only 26 when he died,” he said.
For 17 years without fail, Bill has attended the Ground Zero memorial service.
“We want to remember Mark, we want to make sure that he is remembered and all the people.”
