Sept 11: Relation Of Nigerian Victim Recounts Ordeal

Mrs. Angela Peabody, a relation of Mrs. Olabisi Layeni-Yee, a Nigerian, who was killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America, says the family has yet to recover from the shock.

Layeni-Yee, 38, died after the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) where she worked as an assistant manager for International Office Centres.

She was reported to have called her mum, Edith Layeni, from the building immediately after the terrorists had crashed two passenger jets into the twin towers of the centre.

It was said that she was still speaking with her mum when the line suddenly went dead.

The twin towers of the WTC later collapsed and family members never saw her corpse.

Ten years on, Angela says her sister (Edith), who died on Mothers’ Day in 2008, never recovered from the shock of Olabisi’s death.

“It has been very, very difficult. I miss her all the time, especially the occasions like her birthday. Her birthday was January 2.

“No New Year’s Day comes without me thinking of her and missing her and sending her cards.

“She was just a wonderful niece and sister and daughter and everything to us and we miss her really dearly.”

Angela described watching the 10th year memorial service for the 2,983 victims hit at the centre as very “difficult.”

“I couldn’t go to church. I watched some of the names carved into the memorial of the WTC building being called and I didn’t even wait for her marriage name, “Yee”, to be called, because I was so broken-up.”

“I am sure they (Olabisi and Edith) are together now,” Angela told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York.

She added that her deceased sister had five girls, with Olabisi being the second child.

Olabisi, whose father is a Nigerian (Ade Layeni) and mother Liberian, got married to a Chinese, Kenny Yee, and the marriage was blessed with two children.

Jordan Yee, who just finished from college, was seven years old when her mum died and Janna Yee, then two years old is now 12.

Kenny Yee, her widower, who still lives in their same residence in Staten Island, New York, remarried two years ago.

“He (Kenny) has remained close to my family and he will always remain our family member,” Angela remarked.

Nearly 3,000 innocent lives, including those of three Nigerians, were snuffed out in the terrorists attack on the U.S.A. on September 11, 2001.