SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Camille Mortensen lost her brother on 9/11 ten years ago. 26-year-old Brady Howell, a Utah State University graduate, died in the attack on the Pentagon.
Mortensen she says in the decade since, she has learned to focus on his life not his death.
“Brady was a hero, not because he died that day, he was just at work." Mortensen says.
Brady Howell was just at work, like the 124 others who died at the Pentagon when a jetliner, flying at treetop level, banked slightly and rammed into the Pentagon. His sister says Brady Howell was living a dream working in naval intelligence when he died.
"He had done all of the right things, and made good choices, and set goals, and he decided never to do anything dishonest. Because of the way he lived, he was doing exactly what he wanted to be doing when he died."
That is the message Camille Mortensen shares with young Utahns, most of whom were just babies when the terrorist attacks occurred. "Brady's life is a good lesson."
She says focusing on her brother’s goodness has left little room for the pain and anger her family faced ten years ago. "All of us really are at a pretty good place. We have had lots of time. We all really miss Brady but there is really no anger and no bitterness."
Mortensen says losing the darkness of that day has come through service to others. There are several scholarships in Brady Howell's name, and service projects are carried out annually in his memory. "When we hear those things it makes it not so hard. We are just proud of the life he lived." In his memory, his family is trying to live in a way Brady would be proud of. "He was so full of life, and happy, and he was the life of our parties, and he would be really mad if we were walking around mad and ticked off and sad.”
Brady Howell's wife Liz, a Utah native, carried the Olympic Torch in 2002 on behalf of the families of 9/11 victims. She also continues to serve. As a nurse, she worked to bring relief to earthquake victims in Haiti.
