Passerby who ran in to help is among missing
Charles Costello, 46,
was driving by twin towers
at time of the attacks
Charles Costello
OLD BRIDGE — Charles Costello was the type of person who always did good deeds but never asked for recognition.
His wife, Mary, recalled an elderly neighbor who her husband used to drive to and from church. When the elderly lady finally went into a nursing home, Charles used to make regular visits to the home to cheer her up, "and he never even told me," Mary said.
On Sept. 11, Costello performed the ultimate good deed.
At approximately 9 a.m., the 46-year-old Old Bridge resident was driving through lower Manhattan with a co-worker. When he saw flames coming out of one of the World Trade Center towers, he jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the building to try to rescue people. Costello was an elevator constructor, so he had special knowledge of the inner workings of office buildings, such as those at the twin towers which would both collapse that morning after being struck by hijacked jet planes.
Meanwhile, back in Old Bridge, Mary Costello learned of the terrorist attack on television. Her husband worked for a Cranford-based elevator company and did not often travel to Manhattan, but she had a sinking feeling that this morning he had. The night before, her husband’s co-worker had left a phone message telling Costello where they would be going the next day. Mary found the message and, sure enough, it was an address in lower Manhattan.
"As soon as I heard it was near the World Trade Center, I was worried," Mary said, "because I knew he would run into the building to help."
Mary left a message for the co-worker’s wife and anxiously waited for news of her husband’s whereabouts. At about 1 p.m. she got a call from the partner’s wife saying that both men were OK, so she spent the afternoon worry-free.
However, when Mary got home from work several hours later, she found her answering machine flickering with numerous messages. Her husband’s union had been trying to reach her all afternoon.
"I thought, ‘Why is everyone so frantic when he is fine,’" Mary recalled. However, she received no word from her husband.
"It didn’t sink in until the next morning. That’s when I realized this whole thing is a nightmare," she said.
No one is exactly sure what happened that Tuesday morning. Even Costello’s co-worker is not able to remember exactly when he last saw his partner.
Evidently the 1 p.m. message was a mistake because Charles Costello was never found, and for the past two weeks his family, like thousands of others whose loved ones have been missing since Sept. 11, has been trapped between knowledge and disbelief.
But there have been signs, Mary said. The day after Costello’s family realized he was missing, his father went to church to pray. There in the chapel he saw a bird.
"I was baptized in that church and I have never seen a bird in that church," Mary said. Her father-in-law told her that "the bird sat down on its belly during the service and after the service flew around."
A couple of days later one of Mary’s friends called her to say that she too had seen a bird in the church.
"It sat down on the balcony where the choir used to sing. It sat through the whole service," Mary said.
Costello was a very religious man, Mary said. He went to church every day, said his daily rosary, and taught confirmation and religious education classes. Mary wondered if the birds were messages from her husband.
"I would go to bed and beg him to give me a sign," she said. "Why was he giving everyone else signs and not me? It’s so frustrating not to know."
In the meantime, Mary tried to track down any sign of her husband. She spent three days at the Armory in New York City, checking and rechecking the lists of victims names.
She spoke to CNN and several newspapers, always making sure to provide a picture of her husband in hopes that someone might recognize him and contact her with information on his whereabouts. And she consulted with the priest at her church, who was working at the World Trade Center site.
"(The priest) said that they do not expect to find any survivors," Mary said. "They put scopes deep down into the rubble and did not see anything. He made me face the reality. I was willing to wait for six months if I had to. I was just begging for a sign."
A few nights ago Mary got the sign that she needed.
"I had this tingling feeling from head to toe and from toe to head, up and down. It was almost like I knew it was Charles. I didn’t fight it. I felt calm and peaceful. My sister told me it was his way of telling me he was OK."
Costello’s funeral will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at St. Ambrose Church, Throckmorton Lane. Because there is no body, the family will bury a box filled with personal items. Costello’s three older children — Amanda, 19, Theresa, 16, and Mary Kate, 10 — will write letters to their father. The youngest child, 6-year-old Charlie, will draw a picture for his dad.
Mary said she feels the funeral will give her family a sense of closure.
"We’ve had our signs and we have to accept his death," she said.
Most importantly, the funeral will commemorate the heroic deeds so humbly performed by her beloved husband.
"This time, whether he likes it or not, he’s getting credit," Mary said.