JANET ALONSO: A Miracle
Motherhood
The
next-to-last phone call Janet Alonso made on the morning
of Sept. 11 was typical: its genesis was maternal
anxiety, and its focal point was her second child,
Robbie, born with Down syndrome 18 months ago. She was
not only checking in with her mother-in- law, Margaret
Alonso, who handled the baby-sitting during the three
days each week that Janet spent as an e-mail analyst for
Marsh & McLennan. She was also making sure Robbie's
foot braces, misplaced on Monday, had been located and
returned to him; he finds it impossible to take his baby
steps without them.
"Check his stroller," Janet suggested. Bingo. Grandma
discovered the braces. Janet and Robert Alonso were also
the parents of Victoria, 2, a miracle baby of sorts.
After 10 years of trying to conceive, using methods
increasingly clinical, Ms. Alonso had all but surrendered
her dream of becoming a mother when Victoria was
conceived -- surprise -- the natural way. Ms. Alonso was
so ecstatic she wrote her husband a letter, thanking him
for this greatest gift. He was so moved he put the letter
in a safe to preserve it.
Though her children were her passion, Janet was a
diligent homemaker -- literally. She loved painting and
refinishing furniture, and spent the weekend before the
disaster sanding the porch they had added to their house
in Stony Point, N.Y.
Her final phone call was to her husband; she told him
that the office was filling with smoke and that she could
not breathe.
And she told him she loved him.
.