Beverly Eckert answered the phone around 9:30 a.m. to hear her husband’s voice on the other end of the line. She felt tremendous comfort at first, but she immediately learned that it would be the very last chat she would ever have with her husband, Sean Rooney.
Sean had kissed his wife goodbye and gone to work as usual at the World Trade Center’s south tower on September 11, 2001. Beverly had switched on the TV not long after that to watch footage of the twin buildings being crashed into as part of one of the greatest terrorist attacks in history, which would always be remembered by two terrible numbers: 9/11.
She was very delighted when she heard his voice on the phone, Beverly said, recalling her talk with her husband. She said, ‘Sean, where are you?’ believing he had made it out and was phoning her from someplace on the street. When he informed me he was on the 105th floor, she realized Sean was never coming home.
Sean remained calm while being imprisoned within a building that would shortly be destroyed. He informed his wife that he and others in the building tried to flee but were halted by the smoke and heat. Beverly attempted to offer him any information she saw on the news that would help him flee, such as which level and which area of the building was on fire. She even called 911 from her second mobile phone to report her husband’s whereabouts.
After debating escape plans and Sean attempting to reach the top, it became clear to the pair that he would not make it out in time.
Sean didn’t even move as a burning building burned beneath him. He kept his cool, simply talking to her as he usually did. She will always be amazed by how he confronted death. There was no fear in him, even when the windows surrounding him became too hot to touch and the smoke made it difficult to breathe, Beverly remembered.
He urged her to send his love to his family, and then they simply started chatting about all the good times they had together and how blessed they were to have one other. When she noticed that he was having difficulty breathing, she inquired whether it hurt. He thought for a bit before saying, ‘No.’ He cared about her enough to tell the truth. As the smoke thickened, he just kept repeating, ‘I love you,’ again and over.
Beverly kept hearing her husband speak those three words until she heard a huge explosion. She believed they both sensed what was going to occur, so they held their breath, she added. She heard Sean gasp once as the floor collapsed beneath him. She kept repeating his name into the phone. Then she simply sat on the floor, crouched, hugging the phone to her chest.
Her spouse of 21 years was gone, as with over 3,000 other victims who died that day. She just wished to crawl through the phone lines to him one final time, she explained.
Sean RooneyBeverly Eckert recalls her final conversation with her husband, Sean Rooney, before he died in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. With the anniversary of September 11 upcoming, we’re sharing conversations with loved ones affected by the attacks → https://storycor.ps/3AF8N1Q
Posted by StoryCorps on Wednesday, 7 September 2022
Beverly became a champion for other families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 assault after losing the guy she had known since she was 16 and adored.
During Barack Obama’s administration, she and others met with him to discuss how terrorist suspects should be treated with, and as co-chairwoman of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee, Beverly talked about some of the shortcomings that the government might have averted in the run-up to the assault.
Beverly rose to prominence as a 9/11 survivor before dying in an aircraft crash near Buffalo in 2009. The 57-year-old woman was on her way back to her hometown to celebrate her husband’s 58th birthday. When Obama spoke from the White House following her death, he remarked, she was an encouragement to him and so many people.
