A daughter remembers Charles Waters

Charles Waters, 44, of Bethpage, was vice president of facilities at Cantor Fitzgerald and worked on the 101st floor of the north tower. His remains were never recovered.

A daughter remembers

Jaclyn and her twin sister, Allison, were 11 and in their first week of the sixth grade when their father was killed.

Her brother, Charles, was 14 and a high school freshman. "My life pretty much changed completely," Jaclyn Waters said. "I have the best mom in the world," she said, referring to her mother, Barbara. "She tried as hard as possible to make life normal."

Being "normal" meant adhering to Charles Waters' devotion to education and to his optimism and sense of humor, his daughter said. He gave each of the kids a nickname: Charles was "Sticks" because he was so skinny; Allison was "Aldo," and Jaclyn was "Jackadoodle" or "Jackamoe."

"One of my father's best friends said that if Charlie didn't make fun of you, he probably didn't like you," she said. "I think he had a great relationship with all the people he worked with. It's nice to know other people noticed that about him."

A huge Mets fan, her father always had the game on at home -- when the family wasn't at the stadium.

He coached his son's basketball team and came to all of his daughters' cheerleading competitions. "He hated it but he always came and put a smile on his face," she said.

The day before the attacks, her mother had a job interview. She got the job but decided not to take it. Instead, Jaclyn Waters said, she devoted herself to the kids, as her husband would have wanted.

Jaclyn, a senior at Hofstra University majoring in psychology, hopes to go to law school. Her sister, also a psychology major, is a senior at Marist College. Her brother graduated from Boston University and works at a bank.

Her father is still a vital part of their lives. "We have a lot of pictures of him around and home movies," she said. But losing him changed things. "I had my life before that day and my life after that day." -- Ridgely Ochs