ABSTRACT

Hilary and her mom, Ginny, were one of thousands of families affected by the horrors of 9/11/01. Rando described how the 9/11 attacks contain all six risk factors that make any death traumatic and stimulate traumatic bereavement. The attacks were sudden and there was much violence, mutilation, destruction, and loss of life. Preventability, randomness, multiple deaths, loss of a child (including adult children), and a mourner’s personal encounter with death were present in the survivors’ stories (Rando, 2003, p. 267). The horror of this day was heightened by the fact that all these factors were present.