For 9/11 Victim's Families, Bin Laden's Death Brings Painful Memories

Many of the families and friends of those aboard the two flights from Boston's Logan Airport that crashed into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, are expressing relief after news that the attack's mastermind, Osama bin Laden, was killed. But they say that their grief will never go away.

Christie Coombs of Abington knows that grief all too well. Her husband, Jeff, was killed in one of the planes that left from Logan that struck the World Trade Center. She said she's still trying to process the news.

"I was actually sitting on the couch doing some writing, watching TV," she said, when one of her friends called with the news.

"She got a heads up that the president was going to make a big announcement that was going to be of interest to us, meaning 9/11 families, and we both assumed that it had something to do with Osama bin Laden, but I can tell you I never expected this."

Coombs said she was "stunned, shaking and sick to my stomach" after hearing the news.

"It felt like I was getting news of 9/11 all over again," she said.

Sarah Nelson, with the Association of Flight Attendants, is a Boston-based flight attendant who often worked with United Airlines flight 175, which departed from Boston and hit one of the World Trade Center towers almost 10 years ago. Nelson was friends with many of the attendants on the flight.

Nelson said it's been a tough morning.

"Ten years later emotions still run very high," Nelson said.

"Today, I not only think about my friends who are gone, but I think about the incredible sacrifice since that time and the amazing spirit of those flight attendants and so many Americans who have shown such bravery, not only that day, but every day since that time."

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