His Father Was Killed On 9/11, He Was Born Six Days Later
Here's his incredible story of remembering his father.
Gabriel Dick was born September 17, 2001. This was just six days after the attack on the Twin Towers, and six days after his father was killed in the attacks.
Gabriel's father was attending a conference in the World Trade Center when the plane struck the building. Six days later, his wife and now widow, Jenna Jacobs, gave birth to their son.
"I'm very lucky that I had Gabi so soon after Ari died, because I had somewhere to put my love and someone who needed me to be well," Jenna Jacobs told People Magazine. "Because I don't think I would have been well by myself, but my baby needed me to be well."
Today, Gabriel, who goes by Gabi, still feels a strong connection to his father in his daily life.
"Some people believe in God or the greater power, but I believe in the people that loved you or would have loved you sticking around after they die and guiding you through whatever troubles you have in life," 14-year-old Gabriel, told People Magazine. "But I also know he's out there – somewhere, guiding me along my path in life."
Explaining the circumstances to her son wasn't easy for Jenna, Gabi didn't understand fully about his father's death until he was six years old.
"[A therapist] asked us to draw our feelings when we were in that group and I drew a picture of the burning building," he explains. "That's what I remember most about kind of realizing that there was a plane that had hit the building my father was in. I always thought it was the bad guys from The Incredibles that shot the building down, and later I learned from stories and magazines and TV coverage that a plane had hit the building."
On the anniversary of 9/11 every year, Jenna and Gabi release red balloons into the sky to remember Gabi's father Ariel. They let balloons go into the sky with small notes to Ariel, sending their thoughts of him up to the heavens.
When asked how Gabi feels about the anniversary of his father's death he says, "I'd like the average person to know that this hasn't broken me. I know that I missed out, but I don't need people to feel sorry for me because there's nothing for me to remember. I just need them to understand that I lost something."
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