LIVERPOOL -- There is not a day that goes by that Vanessa Langer is not thought about.
"I miss her, and I know as as profoundly powerful as she was, the one thing she wanted was her child," said Donna Marsh O'Connor, Vanessa's mother.
On September 11th, 2001 Vanessa was killed while working at the World Trade Center. Vanessa was 29 years old and and expecting her first child.
"For those of us who've lost people, September 11th is every single day of our lives because it's a vacancy," Marsh O'Connor said.
In the ten years since Vanessa was killed, Marsh O'Connor feels like the lessons from that day have not been learned. She says a failure to look at the country's internal problems has led to war, a tough economy and a general disrespect for others.
"These are toxic times in so many ways and we haven't learned one single thing in ten years about compassion," Marsh O'Connor said. "It's hard to ever have an intellectual conversation about compassion anymore."
In the past decade, Marsh O'Connor has become a familiar face. She served on the Liverpool School Board. She's also part of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and spoke out in support of an Islamic Cultural Center when it was planned near Ground Zero. She has two sons; one just went away to college and the other is a paramedic.
"He wants to save people, he wants to be a helper and I do think sometimes that is part of the good that came out of September 11th," she said.
While there will always be profound grief and sadness in their lives, there's also joy. She says her family often wonders why they don't have a sitcom. She says, "We laugh everyday. We have fun. We play jokes on each other. We tease each other."
Marsh O'Connor says her daughter made sure to live every moment to the fullest and she continues to feel her presence.
"I'll never see her again on Earth, but she's here everyday," Marsh O'Connor said.
