Jon Lynch was 13 years old when he woke up on September 11, 2001 - not knowing that he would never see his father again.
Like any other normal day, Lynch rolled out of bed, had breakfast and went to school. It all seemed unremarkable; until it wasn't.
He was sitting in his middle-school art class in Whitehall, Pennsylvania, when the teacher turned on the television to witness black smoke billowing out of the first tower of the World Trade Center. 'I was an oblivious teenage boy. I don't remember really thinking anything at all until I got a call from the office.'
Jon Lynch is one of 3,000 children who lost a parent on 9/11. Among them were teenagers, toddlers and infants, some were still unborn. His story is one of dozens examined in Rise From The Ashes: Stories of Trauma, Resilience, and Growth from the Children of 9/11; a new book written by his wife, Payton Lynch, 27.
Their collaborative stories detail the moment unspeakable tragedy ripped through the cloudless blue sky on a brisk Tuesday morning in 2001 - killing 2,996 people in the worst terrorist attack on US soil. The event left an indelible mark on American history, forever changing the lives of survivors and the loved ones of those lost. Suddenly they were different from other children, they were the 'Children of 9/11.'
Twenty years on, they have become a force for healing and a symbol of the indomitable human spirit. Here are some of their stories:
JON LYNCH, 33, (son of Robert Henry Lynch Jr):
Living in Pennsylvania, Jon was the only student in the entire school district who had a parent working at the World Trade Center. His father, Robert Henry Lynch Jr. was the property manager for Two World Trade Center.
Jon remembers being picked up from school early to make the disquieting two-and-a-half hour drive to his father's house in New Jersey, where he was living with Jon's stepmother and three half-brothers. 'I swear we were the only car on the road that day,' he says in the book.
Jon Lynch, 33, lost his father Robert Henry Lynch, who was the World Trade Center property manager during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now married and working in Florida for Disney, Lynch says that he shares 'tragedy and triumph' with other children who lost a parent on 9/11
Jon Lynch was 13 years old when his father died on 9/11. He said he was just 'an oblivious teenage boy' when his teacher turned on the television to watch the tragedy unfold. The gravity of the situation didn't hit him until his mother picked him up from school early so they could huddle with family to wait for his father's return. The last time they heard from him was a voicemail left on the home answering machine: 'I'm out of the building, I'm safe. It's bad, it's really, really, really bad. I will call you soon. I love you.' Robert Lynch never came home
Robert Lynch lives on in the happy memories Jon keeps of his father: excursions to New York City, eating pizza, ice skating in Central Park, Yankee games and the World Trade Center Observation Deck. 'We would ride the elevators from the bottom to the top. We would jump before we got to the top floor and, weightless, we would soar into the air'
With the entire family huddled in one place, they watched the TV and waited by the phone for his call.
'We knew he was out of the building when the first plane hit because he called the house and left a voicemail. I can still hear his voice in my head, saying 'I'm out of the building, I'm safe. It's bad, it's really, really, really bad. I will call you soon. I love you.''
Nobody dared touch the phone. The family wanted to keep the lines open in case Robert called back. Hours turned into days. 'I would watch the news for hours, convinced I saw my dad in the clips,' said Jon. 'I called my dad's phone, hoping he would pick up instead of getting the dreaded voicemail for the millionth time.'
That voicemail remains in the family today and memorializes the last time they heard from their father.
For weeks the family agonized over Robert's last minutes. They struggled to understand how he went from being safe outside to one of the victims. What little information they had was cobbled together by friends and coworkers that saw him outside the building.
Jon learned that his father went back inside to save others. For his heroism, Robert was posthumously awarded the 9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor.
In the years following, Jon faced unimaginable pain and challenges while grieving the tragedy. He was particularly haunted by a classmate's theory who claimed that all unidentified victims must have 'just picked up and left their lives' to start anew.
'Rise From The Ashes' examines the stories of children who lost a parent on 9/11. Payton Lynch, 27, says she was inspired to write the book by the 'resilience and strength' she saw in her husband. 'The 9/11 surviving children remind us that it's what we do moving forward from tragedy that makes a difference'
'I would see footage of the attacks on television and imagine that I saw my dad there, or I'd be walking down the street and see someone that looked exactly like him.'
'Grief does not happen in a straight line,' writes Payton Lynch, who spent the last year studying how it's impacted the lives of 9/11 Children. To her surprise, she discovered that their shared trauma is 'the secret sauce to their resiliency.' Like many others, Jon has been able to live a successful and joyful life - not in spite of the tragedy - but because of it.
'The resilience and strength I see in my husband is the reason I wanted to write this book in the first place,' said Payton Lynch. 'I knew that these traits didn't just come to him overnight.'
'I still have dreams about the towers where I find myself walking through the buildings. I remember every detail of those buildings, down to how squishy the carpet was in the main lobby,' said Jon in the book.
His father lives on in the happy memories Jon keeps: excursions to New York City, eating pizza, ice skating in Central Park, Yankee games and the World Trade Center Observation Deck. 'We would ride the elevators from the bottom to the top. We would jump before we got to the top floor and, weightless, we would soar into the air.'
Jon has also found joy in preserving his memory in his little brother Mark, who was one-year-old at the time of 9/11. Because of this, Mark has no personal memories of his dad and relies on the stories of others to form a mental picture of who he was.
That being said, he doesn't find comfort in his father's former possessions. 'My brother has a shirt that he says was Dad's and while I think that's cool and all, it doesn't do anything for me,' he explains. Instead Mark connects to him through shared hobbies and interests like comic books, engineering, technology and a passion for helping others.
Today Jon Lynch, now 33-years-old, is happily married (to Payton) and lives in Florida. They both work at Disney World where he works in entertainment. By his own description, he says, 'I'm a performer. A craftsman. A Disney junkie. A Harry Potter enthusiast. A dog lover (and cat tolerator). An adventure seeker.'
He hopes that telling his story will help others suffering through trauma to see that there is hope for them. 'There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and you are not alone!'
HALLEY BURNETT, 25, (Daughter of Thomas Burnett):
Halley Burnett was five-years-old when her father, Thomas Burnett, died on the hijacked United flight that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Now 25, she and her twin sister, Madison, have their master's degree and Halley works as a financial analyst in commercial real estate. 'We are victors, not victims,' she says. 'We rose above our circumstances, and we are better for it'
Thomas Burnett, 38, was travelling for business as the COO of a medical device company named Thoratec when his plane was hijacked by terrorists on 9/11. He was one of the brave passengers who led the heroic charge to thwart the attackers plan that targeted the Capitol building in Washington DC. Burnett made several calls to his wife from the plane to alert her of the situation, while she informed him with details happening on the news. The last words he spoke to her were: 'Don't worry. We're going to do something'
Halley recalls something feeling 'different' on the morning of 9/11 when she waltzed downstairs, expecting to see her mother cheerfully preparing breakfast in the kitchen like she always. The lights were still turned off but the glow from the TV flickered images of explosions and burning buildings. Their mother, Deena was sat in their father's recliner chair, clutching the house phone and sobbing uncontrollably: 'Oh no, oh no, oh no.' Seeing her mother in such immense pain is a memory that she will never forget. 'The world knows my dad is a hero, but no one knows my mom is,' she says
Halley Burnett clings to a few fleeting memories of her father that continue to make her smile. Because Tom Burnett traveled often for work, family time was always a precious commodity. She recalls how he made it a routine to dance with his daughters before bedtime. Like clockwork, they made their way around their home, Tom throwing his daughters into the air and twirling them around to Wynonna Judd's 'I Can't Wait to Meet You.' Above, Halley is pictured with her twin sister, Madison and her younger sister, Anna Clare
Something didn't feel right on the morning of September 11, 2001 when five-year-old Halley Burnett and her two sisters made their way downstairs before school.
Halley and her twin sister, Madison were in kindergarten at the time, her younger sister Anna Clare was just three-years-old.
The lights were still turned off but the glow from the TV flickered images of explosions and burning buildings. Their mother, Deena was sat in their father's recliner chair, clutching the house phone and sobbing uncontrollably. She covered the receiver with her hand and cried out: 'Oh no, oh no, oh no.'
On the other end was Halley's father, Thomas Burnett, 38, the COO of a medical device company named Thoratec. He was a passenger on the doomed United Flight 93 out of Newark Airport that was bound for San Francisco.
Thomas had already called Deena several times from the plane that morning to tell her that his plane had been hijacked; meanwhile, she relayed information about the grim news that was happening on the ground.
After a brief discussion, the passengers on Flight 93 voted on a decision to rush the cockpit to regain control of the plane. A flight attendant boiled hot water to throw on the hijackers and Thomas helped devise the plan. The last words he spoke to their mother were: 'Don't worry. We're going to do something.'
For Halley and her sisters, seeing their mother in such immense pain is a memory that they'll never forget.
The Burnett sisters were also too young to understand the impact that their father had on 9/11. Snapped out of their routines, Halley, Madison and Anna Clare found themselves in the spotlight with interviews on Oprah and meet-and-greets with President Bush.
On family video, the then thee year old Anna Clare explained her dad 'tried to throw the bad guys out of the plane but he couldn't and it was too late so they died. He saved George Bush's house.'
The experience haunted them and continues to do so. Anna-Clare says she would wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Halley finds that death is now something she fears will visit her family prematurely again. She told Lynch: 'I'm not even dating anyone right now and yet I think about the life insurance plan I will someday need to get and the things I should do to make sure my family is taken care of if I were to suddenly die.'
Despite their suffering, the sisters have gone on to live full lives. Following in their father's footsteps, Halley and Anna Clare attended Pepperdine University. Twins Halley and Madison have both obtained their master's degrees. Halley recently landed a job as a financial analyst in commercial real estate.
Today, Halley credits her mother as being one of her biggest influences. 'The world knows my dad is a hero, but no one knows my mom is.'
'We are victors, not victims. We rose above our circumstances, and we are better for it.'
MATTHEW BOCCHI, 29, (Son of John Bocchi):
Matthew Bocchi, 29, was in his fourth grade class when he learned that a plane hit the World Trade Center, a couple floors below his dad's office. His father, John Bocchi was the managing director of Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm that lost every employee that reported to work on 9/11. His journey through grief was marred by drug addiction and sexual abuse. But now 20 years later, Bocchi has written a memoir about his struggles and says he feels 'peace and serenity'
Bocchi (second from the right) stands with his three brothers at his youngest sibling's graduation. In the immediate days after the attacks, Matthew and his brothers would act out different scenarios of their father's heroic escape. But on September 18, their worst fears came true when police arrived at the house to tell them his remains had been found
'I had a lot of friends who lost dads on 9/11 and we all handled it in a different way. They didn't look at the pictures and the videos in the same way that I did, ' Matt said. 'They didn't obsess over how their fathers died the way I did. For me I just went down a deeper and deeper rabbit hole'
A known prankster, Matthew's mother Michele thought John was joking when he told her that a small plane hit the building before the line cut out. He eventually got through again to tell her that she was 'the love of his life'
Matthew thought his dad was indestructible, 'like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando,' he said. Despite the odds, he believed that his father was going to walk through the door any minute with a box of pizza in his hand. He kept calling his cellphone, leaving the message, 'Come home soon. I love you.' Eventually, the voicemail box was full
Matthew Bocchi remembers the day vividly. His father, John Bocchi, 38, was the managing director of Cantor Fitzgerald and worked on the 105th floor in Tower One.
By 9am, Matthew was pulled out of his 4th grade classroom in New Jersey with a few other students to explain that something happened at the World Trade Center. 'They're evacuating the building, it's okay, there's nothing to be worried about,' they told him. Matthew thought his dad was indestructible, 'like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando,' there is no way he could've been hurt.
Within hours, Matthew and his brother were the only two left in school that day, all the other students had been picked up early. They rode the bus home to find their entire family and neighbors in their house. Despite the glaring news footage, Matthew still believed his father was going to walk through the door any minute.
He kept calling his cellphone, leaving the message, 'Come home soon. I love you.' Eventually, the voicemail box was full.
John Bocchi made several phone calls that morning to say goodbye. A known prankster, Matthew's mother thought John was joking when he told her that a small plane hit the building before the line cut out. He eventually got through again to tell her that she was 'the love of his life.'
In the immediate days after the attacks, Matthew and his brothers would act out different scenarios of their father's heroic escape. But on September 18, their worst fears came true when police arrived at the house to tell them his remains had been found. At first, they were only able to recover the lower half of his body, they found the other portion days later.
Every employee of Cantor Fitzgerald who reported to work that day was killed, John Bocchi was one of the
