TAMARAC, Fla. – It’s been 20 years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the pain is still raw for Buzz and Madeline Smith, who lost their son Jeff when the Twin Towers collapsed.
They sat with Local 10 News reporter Jeff Weinsier to share their story for the first time.
“Unbelievable. Here, I looked at this invitation to come to the services. It said 20 years, and I looked at my husband and I said, ‘Is that possible?’” Madeline Smith said.
“Twenty years … Yes, it’s hard to believe. I guess because I can visualize Jeff,” Buzz Smith said.
“I tried to think what Jeff would look like today,” Madeline Smith said.
The Smiths’ dining room table is lined with memories. Mrs. Smith showed Weinsier a photo of Jeff with his daughters.
“This picture is Jeff the night before he was killed,” she said. “He was going to a baseball game and he was going to take his older daughter Margaret and his wife said, ‘I have to take a picture of this.’”
Jeff Smith was 36 years old when he died. He was a mortgage broker who worked on the 104th floor of the south tower.
He was Buzz and Madeline Smith’s youngest child.
“And we watched in horror,” his mother said. “We knew the minute the plane went into the south tower. As much if we’d like to have thought that that was the end of Jeff.”
“You know, you have someone that’s on the 104th floor. This thing went in below and it exploded upward. There was very little hope,” Buzz Smith said.
The Smiths say the worst day of the year for them is always April 19, Jeff’s birthday.
“Jeff called us every day. Every single day. ‘Hi, mom. Hi, dad,’” Buzz Smith said. “He wanted to know if I had a good day. ‘How was your day? How is mom doing? What’s going on?’”
Twenty years of birthdays, holidays and graduations have come and gone.
“I think of the two beautiful girls who are left behind. And I think, ‘Boy, wouldn’t he’d love to see them. Can he see them?’” Madeline Smith said.
Madeline Smith showed Weinsier photos of her granddaughter Margaret, who just graduated from Cornell University and Jeff’s youngest daughter, Charlotte, who was just 9 months old when he died.
“Jeff would have been so proud of those two girls,” Madeline Smith said.
“What do you tell the girls today?” Weinsier asked.
“Do the best you can to be the best you can,” Buzz Smith said.
Jeff Smith was the first class president at Taravella High School in Coral Springs, and he also played football there.
“We have given about $90,000 worth of scholarships at Taravella in Jeff’s memory. We go and interview the students,” Madeline Smith said. “And it’s really a pleasure to hand out these scholarships to the different kids that we feel will be a success and make a change in the world today.”
Sept. 11, 2001, was a Tuesday.
Jeff Smith was scheduled to come home the next day to go to a University of Miami football game that weekend.
It never happened.
“That’s Jeff’s name at the memorial. And every year, on his birthday, they put a rose on it,” Madeline Smith said. “We tried to get up every year. I don’t know if we’ll make it this year. But we try to get up. We found it very comforting to be there among the rest of the people that have lost family.”
Jeff Smith’s mother described him as “congenial” and “happy,” and someone who loved sports.
“He was a delight. He was the baby of the family,” she said.
Twenty years later, there is little anger.
“You know what? Jeff would not want us crying. Jeff would want us to be strong and that is what I think of,” Madeline Smith said. “He would not want us to cave. He would want us to be strong and keep going strong. And that’s what keeps me going.”
“When I think of Jeff, I just have a smile more so than a sad (face) as it chokes me up. But he has left me with a smile. I see that face,” Buzz Smith said. “As Madeline said, we had 36 great years. He was a special kid. Redheaded, freckled face. Handsome like his father.”