NY Daily News

And, in the rejoining of date and day, moment and memory, today is Sept. 9, a Sunday just like the 9/9 that was for so many a last time of family and friends and doing what they loved.

Every hour, every minute, every second of today will be precisely in sync with the hours, minutes and seconds of that happy 9/9 as it tick, tick, ticked unknowingly toward 9/11 six years ago.

On Tuesday, James Waring's name will be read as one of those of Cantor Fitzgerald who perished on 9/11, but a truer measure of the loss comes with the thought of this doting dad at Long Beach with his wife and four daughters on 9/9, strolling along the water's edge and dashing into the waves.

Or think of Laurence Curia, who found himself with his two kids on an unexpectedly hot Sunday at Jones Beach without bathing suits. They all splashed in the surf in their clothes.

Or think of Brian McAleese of the FDNY at Field 5, Robert Moses State Park, building sand castles with his 4-year-old son.

Or of Thomas Sinton of Cantor Fitzgerald and his wife zipping around on "his-and-hers Jet Skis" on the Hudson River.

Or of Paul Rizza of Fiduciary Trust and his wife picking homegrown summer tomatoes and making sauce the way it should be made.

"It was good sauce," his widow, Elaine Rizza, said yesterday. "I've never made homemade sauce since then."

Or think of Thomas Brennan of Sandler O'Neill playing Grateful Dead CDs in the car as his 19-month-old daughter boogied and laughed in her car seat.

Or of Christopher Wodenshek celebrating another kind of anniversary, his 12th wedding anniversary, which one of his five young children would commemorate with a post-9/11 drawing of roses "for when my dad gave my mom all these roses for [her] anniversary."

Or of newly promoted FDNY Captain Timmy Stackpole at the Great Irish Fair laughing with his family along with the similarly ill-fated Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge and Firefighter Durrell (Bronco) Pearsall.

Or of Joseph Vigiano of the NYPD welcoming his wife home from her soccer team's opening game with a prime rib dinner complete with Caesar salad.

Or of Katherine McGarry-Noack of Telekurs financial group giving her pregnant sister a pink layette for a baby girl who would be born exactly two months after 9/11.

Or of Noell Maerz, who began that Sunday at a childbirth class with his very pregnant wife and then ran the 10 miles home to train for his first New York City Marathon. His daughter would be born on Nov. 1, and his brother and father would run the marathon for him four days later. They now put on an annual triathalon on the second Saturday of September, the latest yesterday.

"Keep the memory alive," his brother, Erich Maerz, said.

Or think of Astrid Sohan of Marsh & McLennan, who went with her partners and grandparents and four aunts and three uncles for dim sum in Chinatown.

"Like a family reunion," her mother, Barbara Sohan, remembered. "We had a great time. It was wonderful."

They passed the shadow of the World Trade Center, which on 9/9 stood as a symbol of all Astrid had accomplished. She had immigrated with her family from Guyana and she had worked her way to becoming a 33-year-old assistant vice president at Marsh & McLennan on the 95th floor of the north tower.

"She was full of life, lots of fun, enthusiastic, a go-getter, loved to shop, a leader, just a wonderful person," the mother said Friday in one breath.

The mother could not have imagined on 9/9 that they were tick, tick, ticking toward 9/11, that each of these perfect moments was a moment closer to the end.

"The last supper," the mother said. "My only child."

So many years have passed since then that Osama Bin Laden has felt compelled to dye the gray from his beard. But now 9/9 comes back to us on a Sunday as a measure of all that was lost on 9/11 and a reminder to the lucky ones to treasure the gift of a day with those you love.