NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Like most 10-year-old girls, Olivia Vilardi-Perez's hero was her father.
Anthony Perez was working on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center, for Cantor Fitzgerald, on Sept. 11, 2001. Before he died in the collapse of the North Tower, he left a message on the family's answering machine, to say goodbye, and to say, "I love you."
Twenty years later, Olivia is doing well, but she still has not listened to the message.
"Him calling, knowing he was about to die, I don't know if I could handle that, but I need to hear his voice," she told 1010 WINS. "I need to hear him even say, like, 'I love you,' because it's hard. Like, you haven't heard that in 20 years."
"I know he loved me, so part of me is like, 'Do it,' and then the other part of me is like, 'Don't do it,'" she said.
Olivia's laugh is infectious. She is strong. She is resilient. But it was a journey to get there.
"I was a very angry person, for the longest time, and even still today, I feel like a victim," she said. "Why me? Why did it have to happen to me?"
Olivia thanks a nonprofit called Tuesday's Children for much of her own survival. The group was created to help all children who lost loved ones on 9/11.
"The sense of community, knowing that you're not alone, I'm very, very grateful for that," she said. "I don't think I would be half the person that I am today if it wasn't for all of their hard work."
Today, Olivia has two master's degrees and is a science teacher on Long Island, where she shares her story with her students every year.
"I had a girl at the end of the period, and she hung back and she had tears in her eyes, and she's like, 'Does it ever get any easier?' And I'm like, 'I'm not sure what you mean.'" she recalled. "And she looked at me and she was like, my mom died last year. And I mean, it was just an immediate like, 'Come here, come here.'"
