Two decades on, 9/11 victim’s wife
recalls tragedy and adversity
Elba Cedeno (left) with her late wife Cathy and Cathy’s mother. Elba Cedeno
COURIER LIFE, SEPTEMBER 10-16, 2021 A15
BY MATT TRACY
Elba Cedeno and Cathy
Smith would often compare
themselves to Pepé Le Pew
and Penelope from the Looney
Tunes cartoon: Smith
pursued Cedeno at a Rockland
County bar they both frequented,
but Cedeno played
hard-to-get — at least until
they couldn’t help but fall in
love.
They went on cruises together.
They dreamed of traveling
the world. They had
an unoffi cial marriage ceremony
at a time when marriage
equality was not yet a
reality.
Their love story, however,
took a tragic turn on Sept. 11,
2001, when Smith was working
on the 97th fl oor in one
of the Twin Towers as a vice
president at Marsh & McLennan.
Cedeno feared the worst
when she learned about the
attacks that morning.
“In the moment, when I got
the news, I was at my job — I
thought it was a joke,” Cedeno
recalled during an emotional
phone interview. “When I got
home, I walked in the house
and the TV was on and I kept
looking at it in disbelief.”
Smith died in the attacks at
the age of 44, leaving Cedeno
with a broken heart and a
feeling of shock that rattled
her to her core. Cedeno’s life
— and the couple’s relationship
— disappeared in the
blink of an eye.
“I could not function,”
Cedeno said. “Thank god I
had beautiful friends and
family and had the support,
because I could barely eat,
barely talk, and barely walk.
It was awful.”
Cedeno met up with Smith’s
family following the attacks
and they made their way down
to a destroyed lower Manhattan,
which was blanketed with
memorials and engulfed with
silence. They could “hear a pin
drop,” Cedeno remembered,
as the hustling, bustling city
went quiet.
To this day, Cedeno still
speaks with raw emotion
when she invokes her late
wife. She recalls Smith as an
avid football fan who loved
watching Dan Marino and
the Miami Dolphins, and she
especially enjoyed spending
time together with loved ones.
Cedeno continues to stay in
touch with Smith’s family today.
“Cathy meant the world
to me,” said Cedeno, who
owned a house with Smith in
West Haverstraw, New York.
“She was smart, beautiful,
and made me so happy. I was
proud to be her wife. We had
planned to spend a long life
together. We were going to
spend the weekend in New
York and she was going to
show me her offi ce. She never
got to do that.”
Instead, Cedeno found herself
saddled with the hardship
of losing her life partner
at a time when LGBTQ
couples did not have the same
marriage rights as straight
couples. Cedeno encountered
roadblocks when she sought
assistance through the 9/11
Victim Compensation Fund,
which set out to provide fi -
nancial help for victims and
their families.
Cedeno said she was initially
denied benefi ts and
further faced anti-LGBTQ
discrimination from the Salvation
Army, which was one
of the agencies providing relief
in the wake of the attacks.
Thankfully, though,
Cedeno had the unwavering
support of Smith’s family
members, who stood alongside
her as she sought benefi
ts and conveyed to offi cials
that Smith and Cedeno were
just like any other married
couple. Cedeno said she received
legal assistance at the
time from Lambda Legal, an
LGBTQ litigation group, and
she wound up receiving the
benefi ts in the end.
“It was rough,” Cedeno
said. “The pain of going
through that was just unbearable.
I was happy that
we had Lambda step in and
I was happy that everybody
was able to recognize us and
get it together. The family
was there to vouch for us as if
we were married. It was more
than enough proof.”
Smith was one of nearly
3,000 people who were killed
during the attacks on September
11, 2001, and many of those
who did survive wound up experiencing
severe health consequences
that have lingered
to this day. Countless others
who initially survived the attacks
later died from 9/11-related
cancer, respiratory illnesses,
and other health issues
stemming from the effects of
the dust that spread through
the air around Ground Zero.
Many of the surviving victims
and families of victims
are commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Cedeno, who now lives
in Florida, has since returned
to Ground Zero to pay tribute
to Smith — including at the
10-year anniversary in 2011
— but the COVID-19 pandemic
has disrupted her wishes to
return to New York City this
year.
“I would have loved to be
there,” she said. “All I can say
is ‘I miss you, Cathy. I wish
we could have spent our lives
together. I wish that never
happened.’”
9/11: 20 YEARS LATER