Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Tim ReidySeptember 12, 2011

Another fine profile from associate editor Kerry Weber:

During September 2001, Michael Armstrong was busy. Then 34 years old, he was preparing to get married in October. He planned to be out of the office at the end of the week of September 11 for his bachelor party. On Monday the 10th, he attended a funeral Mass for a friend’s mother. But on Tuesday he was at work at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center.

Sometimes his sister Laura, nine years his junior, thinks about Michael’s schedule that week. What if the funeral had been held on Tuesday? What if the terrorist attacks had taken place at the end of the week? Any number of events could have spared Michael’s life, and spared his family the pain of losing him. “There are always those what-if moments and the whys,” she says now. “Whys were directed toward God. A certain degree of anger is only natural, but I think what I felt was more hurt and sorrow than anger, and I don’t feel like my faith was altered.”

You can browse our other features for 9/11 here.

Tim Reidy

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Gabriel McAuliffe
13 years 10 months ago
This article is one of the most moving that I have read, particularly in this magazine. 

God bless the Armstrong family.  God rest the soul of Michael Armstrong.

The latest from america

July 16 marks 80 years since the first atomic bomb was detonated. The specter of nuclear annihilation has been with us ever since.
James T. KeaneJuly 15, 2025
David Corenswet in a scene from "Superman" (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
The first time we see the titular hero of James Gunn’s new film “Superman,” he doesn’t descend from the heavens. He plummets.
John DoughertyJuly 15, 2025
If we imagine ourselves as satisfying a God who will “give us” things only if we do the “right things,” then our relationship with God becomes less a friendship and more a chore.
James Martin, S.J.July 15, 2025
For 13 years, Josep Lluís Iriberri, S.J. has guided pilgrims along the same trail St. Ignatius walked over 500 years ago.