A First Job and a Full Life

By Ann Givens | STAFF WRITER

September 20, 2001

Terence Gazzani was just starting out.

The 24-year-old Brooklyn man graduated last year from Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., and had gotten his first job on one of the bond desks at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities in Manhattan.

Gazzani, who worked on the 105th floor on the World Trade Center's North Tower, has not been heard from since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. His family is still holding out hope of a miracle.

"One of his good friends called him at work after the plane hit," said Gazzani's cousin, Tracy Rodgers, of Baldwin.

"He said: 'I'm being evacuated. Tell my Mom and Dad I love them, and I'm coming home,'" Rodgers said.

Gazzani's parents, Tracy and Marty Gazzani, and his extended family and friends gathered last week for a private candlelight vigil on their block, Rodgers said.

Gazzani was a guy who loved to relax and enjoy life, Rodgers said.

He shared a house with friends in Southampton this summer, and had a second job as a bouncer at the popular Hamptons night spot the Boardy Barn.

"He loved to go into the city and party and have a good time," Rodgers said.

Gazzani is a big Mets fan - so much so that his friends called him "Mookie," after shortstop Mookie Wilson.

Rodgers said he was never more thrilled than when he got to see his team win the World Series in 1986.

Rodgers said that whenever Gazzani was given the choice between joining in the action or sitting on the sidelines, he always jumped right in.

"He lived such a full life," his cousin said. "And thank God."