The View From His Office Changed His Life Forever

On Sept. 10, 2001, Frank Capece could brag about having the best view in his office at a Seacaucus law firm. From the large windows, the Cranford resident had a "vista view" of the New York City skyline. Twenty-four hours later, however, he couldn't bear to look outside.

The sight of a plane crashing into Tower One of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on a sunny September morning is something that not only changed the country forever, but altered Capece's views and made him rethink his priorities.

As with so many stories about Sept. 11, Capece said his work day - as a senior partner at the lawfirm of Waters, McEherson and McNeil - start started out like any other.

"I got to work early. Everything everybody has said about that perfect fall day was true," Capece remembers. "I came in; I was usually one of the first guys in office."

At around 8:20 a.m. Capece made a call to the director of the Hudson County Improvement Authority on a business matter.

"We were bantering over a huge piece of property in Jersey City that was being developed and it was your normal, morning banter mixed with law," said Capece, who is always willing to hold a conversation about everything from his beloved Chicago White Sox to American history, without missing a beat when there's business to discuss. As he spoke to the Jersey City official, he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the desk, while glancing across the Hudson River at the Twin Towers, as the sun reflected off the landmark buildings. "One of the luxuries of being 5'6 is you can put your feet up on the desk with great ease," Capece joked.

The moments that followed, Capece said, have 'crystallized" in his mind.

He recalls seeing the plan come in at an angle, striking Tower One of the World Trade Center.

"I was still on the phone and I yelled, 'Tom, you're not gonna believe this. A plane just hit the World Trade Center,'" Capece said. "It's kind of like a car accident to the extent that it's slow motion in your mind and then it's like a jolt. My immediate thought was that it was like the time when an Army plane hit the Empire State Building in 1943. I jumped up and ran outside to tell everyone else in my office."

It was while he was out of his office, away from his "vista view" of the skyline, that a second plane piloted by terrorists hit the South Tower.

Work came to an end as people across the country listened to news reports and watched horrific images on TV in disbelief.

"I didn't know, at the time, that it was an invasion of our country," he said.

Letting his wife, Suzanne and his daughter, Diana, know he was safe, Capece then headed to Runnels Specialized Hospital in Berkeley Heights for a hearing on behalf of his firm.

"I remember being devastated and heading back to Runnells and the head of nursing there told me they were preparing the facility to accept injured bodies (from the World Trade Center)," Capce said."

Like other medical facilities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that were expecting thousands of injured people to be rescued and transported to the hospital, Runnells staff was unaware of the devastation and the fact that the deaths would outnumber the immediate injuries. While he was at Runnells, his friend and former Hillside Councilman Peter Corvelli informed him about the plane that had stuck the Pentagon. He began to realize the severity of the situation, but more than that, he came to the conclusion that America was much more vulnerable that the country's proud citizens wanted to believe.

"Smarter people than me have said that there is a realization that American exceptionalism didn't exist and that we were more vulnerable than we though," Capece said. The prospect makes him angry and even now, 10 years later, the feelings have yet to subside. "The anger never fades. I never saw a time when this country came together like that. Good Democrats aren't supposed to say this, but I do believe in American exceptionalism. We are the best. There's no other country in the world where people fight so hard to come here.

His view on our country were the only things that changed for Capece after he watched terrorists attack the World Trade Center. His priorities shifted as well. A few months after the terrorist attacks, Capece left the powerful, well-known lawfirm for a smaller firm in Westfield. He also left behind the 12-hour work days and more importunely, he left behind the window with the panoramic of the now-altered skyline.

"I didn't want to look out that window for the longest time. As I think back, and I do a lot, there's not a day that goes by when I don't see the plane hitting that building. After that I started to appreciate every day," said Capece. "I just came to the realization that what was important on Sept. 10 didn't seem so terribly important on Sept. 11"

He now enjoys the simpler things in life - the thriving garden behind his spacious Cranford home, eating dinner at home every night with his wife, collecting baseball cards, sports memorabilia and old newspapers featuring historic events.

"I really do take time to smell the roses now," he said. "I've told my wife that we are just so blessed."

Now, Capece spends his days dealing with municipal law, working with clients, visiting local eateries in Cranford and dropping in on his many relatives in town. He likes it this way, and despite having witnessed the tragedy on 9/11, Capece said he has never had a desire to visit Ground Zero. He refers to himself as a "prisoner in his mind's eye," who can't get the image of that day out of his head.

"I've never gone to Ground Zero. I just don't want to," Capece said. I don't miss that window, that's for sure."