Husband trapped in burning tower on 9/11 decided to call his wife and say his goodbyes

On September 11, 2001, Beverly Eckert was in a meeting when someone rushed in with devastating news: a hijacked plane had struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Her husband, Sean Rooney, worked on the 98th floor of the South Tower. With the towers so close, Beverly was instantly gripped by fear and hurried home to try to reach Sean. Trapped in a stairwell on the 105th floor, Sean was struggling to breathe as thick smoke filled the air.

When Sean called Beverly, they both understood it would be their final conversation. Moments later, Beverly heard an explosive crash on the phone and then there was silence on the other end. But before the man got consumed by the fiery flames in the tower, he spent his last moments repeating the words “I love you” to his beloved wife, as she later told StoryCorps.

According to 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Beverly and Sean met at a high school dance when they were just sixteen. They fell in love, married, and made a home together in a Victorian house in Stamford, Connecticut. After long days at work, Sean would always return to greet his wife with a hug. But on this tragic day, there would be no final embrace. Terrorists had already turned both towers into piles of dust and rubble.

In the recording with StoryCorps, Beverly recalled the details of that ill-starred morning, adding proudly that she would always “be in awe of the way he [Sean] faced death. Not an ounce of fear—not when the windows around him were getting too hot to touch; not when the smoke was making it hard to breathe.” She shared how the last few moments they spent together talking, were some of the hardest moments to experience. “We just began talking about all the happiness we shared during our lives together, how lucky we were to have each other,” Beverly described. She recollected that at one point when it was getting harder for Sean to breathe, she asked him if he was hurt. Sean paused for a moment and then said, “No.” “He loved me enough to lie,” Beverly said, probably sighing.

Beverly also described the final moments of their conversation. As time ran out for Sean, they exchanged words of love before the floor beneath him collapsed. “As the smoke got thicker, he just kept whispering, ‘I love you,’ over and over. Then I suddenly heard a loud explosion through the phone. It reverberated for several seconds. We held our breath. I know we both realized what was about to happen. Then I heard a sharp crack, followed by the sound of an avalanche. I heard Sean gasp once as the floor fell out from underneath him. I called his name into the phone over and over. Then I just sat there huddled on the floor holding the phone to my heart.”  

After the harrowing 9/11 attacks, Beverly became a roaring voice for its victims. She co-founded the “Voices for September 11th,” an advocacy group for survivors and victims' families, per ABC News. She even met former President Barack Obama who believed that she was an inspiration. However, despite her generous endeavors to heal the attack victims, she couldn’t free herself from the memory imprint of the airplane crash. The memory somehow repeated itself. In an unfortunate coincidence, while she was onboard a flight to Buffalo in 2009, her airplane crashed in Clarence Center and she lost her life. Talking about the incident, Beverly's sister Sue Bourque told The Buffalo News, “We know she was on that plane and now she's with him,” per ABC News.