Across City, Life Is Different

Trade Center attack remains on minds

By Joshua Robin | STAFF WRITER

September 21, 2001

A patriotic John Philip Sousa march played, quietly, amid a subdued crowd of shoppers yesterday at normally bustling Queens Center mall.

Laura Vecera, sitting beside her pushcart on the second floor, was scanning the Ridgewood Times when she saw a small article about her friend Gabriela.

"I wasn't sure if it was her or not," Vecera said. "I haven't seen her in a while."

Vecera immediately called a friend, who confirmed that Gabriela Waisman of Elmhurst remains missing in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Vecera had met Waisman when both worked at Lechters in the mall; her now-missing friend had since gone to work at Sybase Inc. and was on the 106th floor of the north tower at the time of the attack.

For Vecera and others at what might be considered Queens' 625,000-square-foot village green, the disaster continued to reverberate 10 days after the towers were toppled.

To the strains of "The Stars and Stripes Forever," customers searched for bargains in the mall, which in 1999 had sales per square foot of more than double the national average. City police officers have joined mall security officers.

In the food court, three firefighters wearing dress blues hurried through lunch. They had stopped at the mall on their way from one fellow firefighter's funeral to another.

They didn't know the name of the colleague they were to help honor, only that they surely would shudder with emotion when the casket was carried past them to the skirl of bagpipes.

"You have the same life experiences that are in this job, and what it takes to do it," said Tyrone Williams, a 20-year department veteran. "You don't have to know him personally."

Irving McCoy, who joined the department 28 years ago, added, "He chokes on smoke. He falls on the floor. He does it just like you do."

Earlier, two workers at a pretzel shop calmly talked about those they lost in the attack. Natalia Murphy hasn't heard from her uncle. Mercy Bustos' family friend, Henry Fernandes, was buried yesterday after he died in the attack.

Shamima Ahmed, who works at Motherhood Maternity, said she didn't know anyone missing in the attack. But life is different, she said.

Ahmed is thinking about changing her daughter's last name. The family is Muslim, and a neighbor's home was recently attacked in what she said was a hate crime.

"No one is going to diminish the spirit of our country," Ahmed says resolutely. A moment later, she didn't seem so sure. "What will happen if they see her name is Ahmed?" she asked.

Ed, a customer at a convenience store from Kew Gardens, also was dealing with the effects of the attack. A few days ago, his sister told him that two of his childhood friends, whom he declined to identify, are among the missing.

"I know them," he said, as he stood beneath a small American flag that store workers had attached to a shelf. "I think about their mother and father and families."