Thursday, October 1, 2026
For Malverne resident Anisa Mkwanazi-Sessoms, Sept. 11 is not only a day she remembers. It is also the day that changed her family’s life in ways they would not fully understand for years.
Mkwanazi-Sessoms was in second grade at Maurice W. Downing Elementary School when her mother picked her and her brother up from school after the terrorist attacks. She remembers seeing a female police officer with blonde hair and bangs standing near the front office as students were sent home.
When she got home, she sat in front of the television, watching the images of the World Trade Center. She saw the first plane hit the tower and then watched as the second plane struck the other tower.
At 8-years-old, she did not understand the magnitude of what she was seeing.
“I didn’t really understand what that meant and like why it was happening,” she recalled.
Her father, Mark Mkwanazi, was a New York City police detective who was heading to work that morning. He was traveling through the tunnel when he saw the plane hit the World Trade Center.
In the days and months that followed, Mkwanazi spent months at Ground Zero as part of the rescue and recovery efforts.
For his family, the consequences of that work continued long after he left the site.
Mkwanazi-Sessoms remembers her mother making her father remove his clothes when he came home because of the debris he carried with him from Ground Zero. In the years following the attacks, he also developed a persistent cough and continued to have his health monitored because of his exposure.
At the time, Mkwanazi-Sessoms did not understand what those symptoms could mean.
As she grew older, she began seeing information about health problems among first responders and others who had been exposed to the conditions at Ground Zero. The connection between her father’s health and his work there gradually became clearer.
Sixteen years after the attacks, Mkwanazi became seriously ill.
He died in 2017 at age 58. Mkwanazi-Sessoms said his illness was ultimately linked to his exposure at Ground Zero and his death was considered a line-of-duty death.
The delayed impact of 9/11 was difficult for her to understand.
“I just didn’t understand why it would be affecting him all those years later, like 16 years later,” she said.
Mkwanazi rarely talked about what he experienced at Ground Zero. Mkwanazi-Sessoms said her mother told her that the work was difficult, particularly seeing the devastation and recovering victims.
But when she remembers her father, she does not want his life to be defined only by 9/11.
She remembers a father who loved old Western movies, riding his bike, traveling and taking his children to the park or for ice cream. Even after retiring as a detective, he continued working.
He was also excited about becoming a grandfather. Mkwanazi- Sessoms gave birth to her daughter only weeks before her father became seriously ill, and he never got the opportunity to meet her.
That loss has made 9/11 personal in a way that Mkwanazi- Sessoms could not have understood as a child watching the towers on television.
Her father survived the attacks. He returned home. He continued raising his family and living his life.
But the exposure he endured at Ground Zero remained with him.
“Although he did not lose his life that day, 16 years later I lost him because of what happened that day,” Mkwanazi-Sessoms said.
For Mkwanazi-Sessoms, remembering Sept. 11 means remembering not only those who died that morning, but also the first responders who survived and carried the consequences of their work with them for years afterward.
Her father was one of them.
To read more from the Herald's Remembering 9/11, 25th anniversary special section, click here.
