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Today's Featured Biography
Lori Wagner Kritikos
Hello to you all!
Can you believe how long it has been? Thanks to Bruce and all his helpers for keeping our class in touch with each other for 25 years. My life has been quite busy since graduation. After going to University of Georgia, I went to work in the financial market at Drexel Burnham Lambert. I enjoyed the ride of the '80's bull market and was there during the insider trading scandal of Michael Milkin, which eventually led to the closing of Drexel. One good thing did come of my working there though, I met my husband George while visiting the home office in New York City. We dated long distance for two years and then I moved to New York when we married. My husband is Greek Orthodox, so we literally had a "Big Fat Greek Wedding". And believe me, it was very similar to the movie! Talk about culture shock! A Georgia peach moving to NYC and becoming greek! It took me several years before I felt comfortable here, but now I love it. It is definitely never boring. George and I live in Brooklyn with our two kids, Lia and Stephan. The building we own has three apartments. We live on the third floor, George's Mom lives on the second, and we rent out the first floor. George's family moved to Brooklyn when he was five and his parents had a limited grasp of English when we married. It was quite a funny situation when we first married, but over the years we have managed to form a sort of half English/half Greek language of our own. My children attended a Greek Orthodox elementary school, so they learned fluent Greek and do a lot of the translating when needed. Their school is located across the river from what was once the Twin Towers, and on Sept. 11th, 2001, we were right in the middle of the terrorist attack. That day began just like most others with me taking the kids to school and then heading for the grocery store. My husband was scheduled to have an early morning meeting in the towers at the Morgan Stanley offices. (Thank goodness the meeting was cancelled at the last minute!)When I returned home and turned on the TV, I saw footage of the first tower burning and George called me to let me know he was safe. He also was able to call my parents in Georgia and his parents in Greece to let them know that we were all fine. It is a good thing he did, because the phone service became jammed shortly thereafter and we would not be able to call again for the next few days. While I was on the phone with George, the second plane hit and we realized that this was not just an unfortunate accident. At that time, I went up to the roof of my building to see if this was really happening. When I opened the door, the first thing that I noticed was the absolute silence that enveloped the city. I had never, in all my years living here, heard such silence. Everyone was in a state of shock. I could see the smoke from the towers in the distance and knew that this was really happening. When I went back to the TV, the local reporters were telling everyone to stay indoors and not to go out. When the last two planes crashed, I knew that this day would forever be part of our history, it felt as if we were in the middle of a war. Meanwhile, at the kids school, they had all gathered at the windows on the top floor and some of them witnessed the second plane hitting the tower. As soon as it became evident that the towers were going to fall, and that the dust cloud might come their way, the principal rushed the children into the basement gymnasium and instructed them to cover their faces. The cloud completely enveloped the school and turned everything dark. The kids told me that they were not too scared until it became hard to breathe. Fortunately, they were far enough away that the cloud settled down pretty quickly. At home, after the dust had settled from the second tower, I decided that I had to get to my kids and get them home safely. As I drove toward the school, it began to look like there had been a snowstorm in September! Dust had covered the roads and piled up on the cars just like snow in the winter. When I arrived at the school, I was amazed at how everything had been handled without the children being traumatized. Everyone talks about how cold and unfeeling New Yorkers are, but what they don't realize is that when there is a crisis, New Yorkers are just the same as everyone else. The acts of kindness that day truly made me proud to say that I am a New Yorker. Since that day, Lia has gone on to high school and is finishing up her sophmore year. She enjoys drawing and writing, and is hoping to write young adult fiction when she gets older. Stephan is in the 7th grade and enjoys inventing mechanical devices. He wants to be a robotic engineer, and tells me that he will create a robot to take care of me when I am old! (Sounds good to me!). I am a stay at home mom and take care of the family and George's mom. George works for Morgan Stanley in the city, near Times Square. We enjoy our lives here, but manage to go back to Georgia every summer for a month or so to visit friends and family.
I don't think that I will be able to make it to the reunion this year, but I hope that you all have a great time. Thanks again to everyone who has been involved in keeping our class together. Enjoy yourselves, and maybe I will see you all at the next one!
Best wishes,
Lori Wagner Kritikos
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