If any of the visitors of this page want to know information about the builder of it, and how i "met" Richard Cudina please read the following notes. 
HOW I EXPERIENCED SEPTEMBER 11th 2001.
First of all i want to tell that i've never met in person or heard of Richard before September 11th 2001. I am from Athens, Greece and i work in a Securities company. I was sitting at my office that terrible afternoon (it was 3.50 pm in Athens), when my phone started ringing. First it was a close friend, then my stepmother..."...you got to see what's happening, a plane rushed into a skyscraper in New york...". I was thinking they're just fooling me. I closed those phones making fun at them saying "yes right, and now let me go back to work..". In the next 5 minutes i had 1-2 more calls from friends and from my stepmother, while i decided to go to the dealing room of the company where they had a small tv set. There i saw the scene of the second plane rushing into the south tower. I was SHOCKED. I went downstairs, back to my office, telling my partners "this is WAR happening in New York" but no one paid attention at me. Minutes later an employee listening to the radio told us that the one of the two World Trade Center buildings  had collapsed. Thirty minutes later i decided to leave the office and go home since i couldn't keep working with that shock and my work time was already over, i live only a few minutes away from work. I still remember myself running to home and often recall that when i pass by the same road. It must be only 2 minutes after i opened my tv set while the North Tower started to collapse live in front of my eyes. I will never forget that scene. When i think now that Richard was in that building i saw going down that makes that memory even more painful. During the rest of that doomed day i was watching tv live coverage from the grown zero and made 2 video tapes of those live coverages. I was feeling so depressed as never before and i was keeping telling myself the word "UNBELIEVABLE". The tv images were just only the 2 buildings inferno and collapse, no human in the coverage, just some people running. It wasn't until Saturday since i discovered the human tragedy beyond the terrorist attack. 

HOW I "MET" RICHARD CUDINA. 
During the doomed week i saw in the news the image of the firefighter Mike Kehoe who was photographed climbing up the North tower and the the world thought was dead, but the newspaper "The Mirror" found that he finally made it out and had him as a cover with the title "I'M ALIVE!". I was so happy for him that i bought the paper. In the 4th page of the paper there were some other human stories. On the left side you could see 4 pictures under the title "the victims"...i saw Richard Cudina's picture there and he was the first picture i saw of someone who lost his life inside the WTC. I stopped reading and i was looking at his picture for much time. It was the moment i understood and felt the human part of the terrorist attack in New York. I had already seen a hundred times the video with the towers collapsing, but the tv images couldn't give yet the simple human stories and tragedies that were happening the same moments. The man of the picture was there. He had a name, he had a life, he had dreams and some mad people took them all away from him and from millions of others that day at that place. I read his story over and over again. From this very moment i felt the big tragedy that happened inside the 2 towers. I understood that anyone of us could be there and loose everything in seconds... 
I keep the newspaper and i'll keep it here forever. I don't want to forget, i will not forget, even if i am not American, even if i am living thousands miles away from ground zero. I could be there as anyone of you could be. I will never forget in my life the image of Richard Cudina as i saw it there in the newspaper. I decided to built this page after some months, because i wanted to find a way to honor the memory the man, since i am too far away to attend to any of the memorial ceremonies.  I give my work to his loving family and friends and i hope they will always remember him and honor his memory. Perhaps someday other people like myself will see this page (as i saw the newspaper that day) and understand what i understood then. I really hope that more people will discover the human face of this tragedy and never forget the lost ones. 

MY VISIT TO THE GROUND ZERO
On June 2003 i had the chance to visit what we call "ground Zero", the place where thousands of people lost their lives that morning of September 2001. being there is an unforgettable experience not because the memories are still so fresh, but also because of the power of the people who honor the memory of the lost ones and the love they carry inside them for those. i also had the chance to visit the nearby St.Pauls chapell, which is already a museum of the WTC recovery efforts. i was really amazed to see there the Richard's missing report. its still there, reminding of the hundreds of visitors everyday his name. that missing report together with an eternal flame may be  my tribute  to him. 
 
The Mirror, page 4, Sat.September 15th, 2001
I am a person who never met or talked to Richard but I feel the need to honor his 
memory and share some of the pain with his people. Chris Cudina -his dear brother- 
asked me in an email to drink an ouzo in Richard's name so i will. I hope that someday 
when i find my way up there to drink one more with Richard, the smiling person in the 
picture i saw that day in the newspaper and made me understand the truth and the 
human beyond the tragedy. 

God bless. Richard, we will meet you in heaven.
 
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