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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 10, 2002
The package was heavy, and James Tarrou choked back tears as he talked about what was in it.
The box contained a steel cross made of a beam from the World Trade Center tower, where his son died a year ago, and an American flag. A flight attendants' association sent the memorial to Michael Tarrou's parents in Clearwater last week.
The family lost Michael Tarrou, a 38-year-old flight attendant on board United Airlines flight 175, the second plane to crash into a World Trade Center tower.
The Tarrou family all live in Pinellas County. There is Gina Tarrou, 12, Michael's daughter, a seventh-grader at Carwise Middle School. She is a cheerleader and she seems to be doing all right, said her grandfather.
"You know, she's young, she has a lot of friends," said James Tarrou. "We try not to sadden her days. She is a happy little girl, but we don't know how she feels inside."
Gina lives in Oldsmar with her mother, Jill Tarrou, Michael's ex-wife. And there is Michael's mother, Patricia, brother Charles Tarrou, a Pinellas County Sheriff's sergeant, and sisters Demetra Lumia, a substitute teacher, and Gigi Tarrou Hintz, a nurse. All plan to try to break away from work on Wednesday to attend a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony at Carwise.
Michael Arden Christopher Tarrou, nicknamed Mac, grew up in the Long Island city of Wantagh. At the time of his death, he lived in Stafford Springs, Conn., with Amy King, his 29-year-old girlfriend, a flight attendant who died with him on flight 175.
A few months before the tragedy, Michael's daughter and ex-wife, with whom he had a friendly relationship, had moved from Connecticut to Pinellas County to be near the rest of the Tarrou clan, which includes five of Gina's cousins. Michael and his girlfriend had plans to move the Pinellas, too, so Michael could be close to his daughter.
Now, all the family has are memories of Mac and Amy, said James Tarrou.
"Nothing is going to bring them back," he said. "They are part of history. They don't belong to us anymore."