Harold McCann, 62, Roseville
Her name, Eugenia McCann Piantieri, is engraved on the newly constructed memorial in Manhattan, between two others who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
"After college she began using the name Eugenia more and more. But she will always be Jean to us," said her brother Harry McCann, who lost her when the two airliners crashed into the twin towers.
Piantieri, who was working in the north tower as a software specialist for Marsh & McLellan Agency, had turned 55 five days earlier. None of her remains were found.
She was the oldest of six siblings, all of whom were born on Guam before their family moved to California in 1953.
Just a couple of weeks before the attack, she and her husband, Anthony, came out to California for a visit. McCann had no idea it would be the last time he would see his sister.
During the trip, she talked about how much she loved her family, including her nieces and nephews and all of her sisters-in-law, "even the ones no longer married to a McCann," McCann recalled.
On the morning of 9/11, he said, his heart was in his throat as he watched the images of planes slamming into the Manhattan skyline. His younger sister, Ginger, who also was working in New York, knew that Jean's offices were in the north tower and began frantically calling hospitals, police and fire stations, to no avail.
It was two weeks before Jean officially was listed as having died in the attacks. Among her survivors is her mother, Isabel, who is 91.
"We all miss Jean very much," McCann said.
"I can't speak for my brothers or sister, but I only blame one person and not a religion for the attacks on 9/11," said McCann, who works for a pizza franchisee. "That person is Osama bin Laden. He's dead now. It doesn't bring those who were lost back, but it feels right."
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Read more articles by Cynthia Hubert
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