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Mostly Cloudy Valley Streamer keeps son's memory alive
Ed Thompson has ensured that his son’s memory will stay alive for a long time. Glenn Thompson was 44 when he was killed on Sep- tember 11 in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. His body was never recovered.
Glenn worked for Cantor Fitzgerald as a bond trader, and was on the 104th floor of the North Tower when the first plane hit.
To remember his son, Ed Thompson has put together a memory book, featuring news- paper articles, pictures and letters. Thompson said he started the book shortly after the attack as “just something to do.”
“Every once in a while when things aren’t going well,” he said, “I just sit down and read this and it calms me down somewhat.”
From his East Argyle Street home in Valley Stream, Thompson talked about all the work that went into creating the memory book. There is Glenn’s birth announcement and baby hair. Copies of the eulogies given by Thompson, a cousin and a friend of Glenn’s are in there.
Thompson has kept any newspaper article written about his son, both before and after his death. There is a picture of Glenn from when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and pho- tos of the World Trade Center scene after the attacks.
Some letters in the memory book are special to Thompson. One, from his daughter Christine — Glenn’s sister — outlines all that had transpired that year. There was a letter from the president of SUNY Cortland, Glenn’s alma mater, inviting the Thompson family to an Oct. 26, 2002, memorial service for all the Cortland alumni who died in the attacks.
Friends of Glenn, many who hadn’t even seen him in years, sent letters to the Thomp- son family expressing their condolences and sharing memories of their departed friend. A letter from then-Mayor Ed Cahill invited the Thompsons to the village’s annual September 11 memorial service.
Thompson includes in the book an honor roll of all of those who were killed in the terror- ist attacks. There is a letter from the former Valley Stream Rotary Club after a tree was dedicated in Glenn’s memory. And Thompson has the certificate from the memory tree he planted in his own backyard.
