Newsday
Moments before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Denise DeAngelis picked up the ringing telephone at her home in West Hempstead, N.Y.
"Denise, honey, I can’t believe what my eyes are seeing!" her husband, Robert DeAngelis, 48, said from his office on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center, Tower Two. "I can’t believe what’s going on."
"What’s wrong, Robert? What’s wrong?"
"Denise, my God, they’re jumping out the windows; they’re jumping out the windows."
"Robert?"
"Go and turn on the TV, Denise!"
She turned on the TV in their living room. The sky was a brilliant blue over the Manhattan skyline, but a noose of black smoke swirled around the first tower that had been hit minutes earlier.
"Denise! My God, three people right in front of me just jumped out of the window of that building."
She watched the TV and saw the second jet speed left-to-right across the screen.
She screamed into the phone.
"Robert, there’s another plane coming. Get out of the building. Get out of the building!"
There was no answer as the skyscraper erupted into flames.
"I love you," she said.
Denise is still awaiting word from her husband, who had left their home early Tuesday morning for his job with Washington Group International, an engineering and construction firm. He has not been confirmed dead and remains officially missing.
She beeps him every hour on the hour because she thinks that may help rescuers locate him.
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