‘We’ve been crying these last 10 years’

This time of year, Doris Monyak's home is quiet.

The television screens stare blankly, grayed and hushed. There is no scratchy babble of the radio or distant murmurings of television jingles or weather forecasts. There is no prattling of news pundits, no greetings from anchors, no analysts, no "experts" and no photomontages.

In her home, there is no coverage of the event that killed her daughter, UConn alumna Cheryl Monyak.

"I know it's big news and all, but when you actually see the tower burning and you know she was there – it's like living it all again," Mrs. Monyak said.

This year, like the eight years previous, Mrs. Monyak doesn't want to risk seeing or hearing about the day two jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center. On Sept. 11, 2001, the jetliner servicing American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the floor her daughter worked on as a vice president at Marsh and McLennan.

"She went into work that morning – they were working on a big project," Mrs. Monyak said. "She was always early. She got in early and was prepared for the day. Then everything happened."

At approximately 8:46 that morning, the first of two Boeing 767 planes hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The crash directly decimated floors 93-99 of the North Tower, all of which were operated by Marsh and McLennan, where Cheryl, 43, worked, dealing with risk insurance around the world.

"She was a great business woman, and I know she was respected by the people she worked with," Mrs. Monyak said. "She was a great gal – very intelligent and very outgoing."

Mrs. Monyak was shopping at Target the morning of the attacks.

"You know, there was a TV section. I heard this woman say, ‘Oh my God,'" Mrs. Monyak said.

The image of the Twin Towers and the surrounding steel-colored clouds of smoke and debris played across dozens of screens in the discount retail store.

"[The woman in Target] said that was the World Trade Center and I knew that's where Cheryl worked," Mrs. Monyak said.

Nobody working for Marsh and McLennan on those floors survived; Cheryl was one of 295 Marsh employees that died that day. Mrs. Monyak said she was able to meet the families of other victims.

"Through the business world and everything, she made a lot of friends over the years. She worked with great people," said Mrs. Monyak.

According to the New York Times "Portraits of Grief," Cheryl's friend Martha Ambros described her as a "magic person." Friends served champagne and dessert at the memorial service to celebrate the life of the woman who made sure a bowl of M&Ms was placed in the middle of the boardroom table, according to the article. When things got heated in a meeting, she would reach across the table and grab some M&Ms to diffuse the tension.

"She did great in the business world, but she was never a snob. She was…an everyday person. She had a lot of common sense," said Mrs. Monyak. "She was intelligent and willing to try anything. She was very quick at adapting to things."

According to a Daily Campus article published in 2002, Cheryl was a Resident Assistant at UConn. One day, some students stole a pig from the agricultural side of campus and let it loose in the dorm hallway. According to the story, instead of getting angry, Cheryl laughed it off.

"Nothing bothered her, not even things like that," Cheryl's father Joseph Monyak told Daily Campus reporter Jennifer Babulsky.

Cheryl graduated from UConn with her Bachelor's Degree in business administration in 1979 and got her M.B.A. from UConn in 1981.

"She learned some good things from UConn," said Mrs. Monyak. "She got along with her women professors…[Cheryl] got to be a strong woman."

In January 2001, the day before Mrs. Monyak's birthday, the Connecticut police informed the couple they had found Cheryl's body. Cheryl's remains are "back home" in New Hartford. Mrs. Monyak is not traveling to New York City for any memorial services.

"We're not going to New York because we have her here. I know a lot of parents, husbands, wives who probably never got the body back of their loved ones but…I have no desire to go down. It will be like reliving the whole thing," Mrs. Monyak said.