9/11 Love: 5 Love Stories Born Out Of September 11th, 2001

The events of September 11, 2001 touched too many lives and broke too many hearts.
But from the ashes of the tragedy, love found a way to triumph.

Below, five inspiring love stories that unfolded in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks.

Support Group Spouses

 

Ben Salamone and Donna Teepe met in a 9/11 support group and fell in love after both of their spouses died when American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, according to the Washington Post. Five years after the attacks, and four years after they began dating, Salamone asked Teepe to marry him on Christmas Eve.

 

Survivors

 

Dan and Jean Potter were married long before 9/11, but both were lucky to walk away from the tragedy safely, reports CBS Minnesota. Jean was working in the north tower when the first plane hit. Dan, a New York City firefighter, didn't know his wife was already safely out when the building fell. He thought she had died -- until he received a call telling him Jean was at a firehouse in Chinatown.

 

Filling The Void

 

Floyd Rasmussen lost his wife, Rhonda, on 9/11 when she was killed while working at the Pentagon. The couple had decided to skip work that day to plan for an upcoming move to California, but decided last minute to go into their offices at the Pentagon anyway. According to the Washington Post, Rhonda was working in the office directly at the point of Flight 77's impact, and traces of her were never found. Floyd never got over her, and kept searching for Rhoda, or someone like her, when he found Brenda Barnum through an online dating site. The two fell in love and married, and even had the approval of Rhonda's mother.

 

9/11 Saved My Marriage

 

Kimberly Morgan's marriage was on the rocks when 9/11 hit. She'd been forced to resign her job as teacher when she became pregnant, and she and her husband were barely making ends meet. In an opinion piece by Morgan on Yahoo! News, she wrote that one missed mortgage payment caused a panic and fights that lasted for days, and resulted in several trips to a marriage counselor. But September 11, 2001 changed all that when her husband's status as a Navy Reservist was immediately changed to active before the first tower fell. His military job led to a government job, which resolved their money problems, and in turn, saved their marriage.

 

An Unlikely Love Story

 

Jennifer Gardner Trulson has a perfectly happy life living with her husband, Douglas Gardner, and two small children in Manhattan, until she lost Douglas in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and her world turned upside-down. After his death, she resigned herself "to be a widowed single mother." But just 10 months after September 11, she met the man who would become her second husband. They married, and Trulson wrote a book about her experience as a 9/11 widow who found love again.