Lower Manhattan Street Vendor Remembers 9/11

by Laura Macchiarola | 09/11/2013 | 2:29pm

Lower Manhattan Street Vendor Remembers 9/11

A street vendor remembers her customers who died in the attacks.

You'll find dozens of street vendors on the corners of Lower Manhattan.  But, on the twelfth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, one vendor painfully remembered the morning that she said forever changed her life.

"Sandra's Spot" has been open for lunch since 1994.  Back then, it was parked right in front of the World Trade Center.  Owner Sandra Garcia remembered she and her husband were running late on that horrific morning in 2001.  They had forgotten the onions.

"Almost 8:15, something like that, we saw the first airplane hit the World Trade Center," Garcia recalled, "I told [my husband], 'Hurry up, they're going to close the street.  I want to work.'  I didn't know what was going on."

Garcia closed shop for about a year, as the area slowly recovered.  When she reopened, she moved her business about three blocks away.  She said she didn't want a daily reminder of the ten regulars who she knows died in the attacks.

"I don't want to go over there because there are too many pictures," Garcia said, "People were taking pictures, people were crying, and I don't want to deal with that."

Garcia said it took some time to regain her usual business, but she's come a long way in the last twelve years.

 

 

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