Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the widow of a Mexican immigrant who died at the World Trade Center is sharing the bittersweet memory of the last time she heard his voice.
Mirna Huerta was married to Leobardo López Pascual, a cook who worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. On the morning of the attacks, he called her with a simple, loving promise: he would send money back home to Puebla, Mexico, so she could buy a cake for an upcoming birthday celebration. It was a small, everyday gesture from a husband looking out for his family from afar, as so many immigrant workers do while supporting relatives back home.
That call would be their last conversation. López Pascual was among the thousands of people killed when hijacked airplanes struck the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, a day that reshaped US history and left lasting scars on countless families, including many immigrant households whose loved ones worked in the towers’ restaurants, kitchens, and offices.
More than two decades later, Huerta still carries the memory of that unfulfilled promise as a symbol of her husband’s devotion and the life that was cut short. Her story is a reminder that the tragedy’s impact reached far beyond New York, touching families across Mexico and Latin America who lost loved ones that day.
To hear Mirna Huerta’s full story in her own words, watch the original video report.
Source: La esposa de un mexicano que murió el 11 de septiembre recuerda la última promesa que él le hizo (telemundo.com).
Image: faith goble, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).