September 11: The Howard Beach community comes together to pay tribute and honor the victims

HOWARD BEACH, Queens (WABC) — They are keeping a promise they made over two decades ago: never to forget.

Dorie's son Richard Allen Pearlman helped a woman after terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers. On September 11, 2001, the 18-year-old volunteer paramedic stormed into the building twice – but did not come out alive.

“It turned my whole life upside down. At the same time, my mother was in the hospital dying of cancer. My mother and my son died three and a half weeks apart. So where should I run? Look for my son or stay with my mother?” said Dorie.
The Pearlman family was with many others in Howard Beach to remember those who died and survived the attacks.

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Eyewitness News will be providing live coverage of the memorial service for the victims. Bill Ritter will re-anchor our coverage on Channel 7 and across all of our ABC7NY platforms beginning at 8:25 a.m.

The Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic organized the ceremony. Phyllis Inserillo played a key role in it.

“I was teaching preschool at the time and I remember one of my little boys was checking the news we were watching to see what was going on. He said, 'My mom is in those towers, but luckily she came home,'” Inserillo said.

Retired firefighters John Morabito and Jay Frango received the call and responded to the disaster.
“We have lost more firefighters to disease than on 9/11 itself. This is a reminder to us that we must continue to go to funerals,” Morabito said.

Wednesday marks the 23rd anniversary of the attack – the moment when Dorie was deeply shocked.

“They got away with murder – literally murder,” she said.

The moment a seismic shift occurred, the world – as we all knew – would no longer be the same.

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