Palmer Supervisor Recounts Time Spent in NYC

may reside in Pennsylvania, but New York will remain her birthplace forever. Just ask and she’ll tell you, in her Brooklyn accent, all about working one block from the World Trade Center's famed Twin Towers. That was before .

worked until 1991 for National Financial Services Corp., a brokerage operations division of Fidelity Investments in New York’s financial district, riding the subway system to a stop right under the World Trade Center’s South tower.

“I worked at 120 Broadway, one block east of the World Trade Center and then at the World Financial Center across the West Side Highway from the South tower,” she said. 

Panella said a daily routine would be to get her morning cup of coffee after exiting the subway for the nearly 13 years she worked in the area.

“I would get my coffee at Au Bon Pain, there was no Starbucks at that time, and ride the escalator up and out of the building,” she said. “After work, which was never at 5pm, I walked back to the World Trade Centers for the subway home.”

The entire area was bustling with people and shops, she recalled.

“On payday, there were shops on the lower mezzanine, so a new outfit was rarely passed,” she said. “These building were alive. They were beautiful. The steel, glass and marble should have been cold, but they weren’t. There were so many people that the building always seemed vibrant and warm. There were sections off the beaten path where benches faced the fountains and it was quiet, in the noisiest, most energetic part of NYC,” she added.

But the beauty of what Panella describes as the “majestic and church-like” buildings of the World Trade Center was destroyed on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Panella said she struggles with the thought of what happened to the people she would encounter on a regular basis at the WTC.

“These were people I used to see every day,” she said. “Not knowing if those people are alive.”

She moved out of New York in 1991 to Palmer Township. In 2001, Panella said, she was working at in Palmer when she first heard news of the terrorist attacks.

“I left my office and went home to be with my mom,” said Panella.

She spent 48 hours straight on the phone trying to contact loved ones.

“I still don’t deal with it well,” said Panella. “It’s not just the steel that’s gone. It’s the people in the building that will not be replaced,” she added. “These 3,000 people had families. They were moms and dads, they had kids who said goodbye to them in the morning. It’s too cruel. Mankind wasn’t made to be cruel.”

After the attacks, Panella worked diligently, along with MCS Industries co-worker Andy Bond, helping to put together framed portions of the Twin Towers. The plaques were auctioned off for donations toward the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance, a memorial to honor the deceased first responders who lived in Brooklyn.

 “I was in charge of donations at MCS and they needed frames,” she said.

MCS supplied the frames at no cost. As a thank you for assisting with the Brooklyn Wall of Remembrance, Chairman Richard Master and Bond also received plaques with a piece of metal from the Twin Towers inside.

As a reward for all her work, Panella received a baseball cap.

“The bravest (NYFD) and finest (NYPD) of New York will always hold a place in my heart,” said Panella. “They ran in as others were running out. Lives were saved. Although they were afraid they respected life more and risked their own to help others. These were men I went to grade school with, who were my neighbors, nothing special. But they were heroes.”

Approximately one third of the first responders who died on Sept. 11, 2001 were from Brooklyn -- 346 firefighters, 37 Port Authority officers, 23 New York City police officers, three New York State officers, one Fire Patrol office and one K-9 patrol dog named Sirius lived in Brooklyn and died in the trade center attacks.

About three years ago, a messenger delivered a package to Panella’s home. Inside was a framed piece of metal from the Twin Towers. A small piece of metal, about five inches by three inches. Bond had left her the item in his will.

“When Andy became ill, and had no family, he trusted me to be executrix of his will,” said Panella. “He asked if I wanted the plaque since it would mean something to me. After his passing, one of his friends made sure it got to me.”

A piece of what Panella described as the “Heart of New York.”