Anniversary rekindles family’s pain

Tim Willert

For Dr. Carlton Valvo and his wife, Coletta, the anniversary of

the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks served as an unpleasant reminder that

their oldest son will never be coming home.

Carlton Valvo II, 38, was at work in his office on the 105th floor

of the World Trade Center’s north tower a year ago Tuesday when a

hijacked airliner slammed into the skyscraper.

“It gets a little easier,” Valvo’s father, a Glendale urologist

and longtime resident, said recently. “But we’re going through the

whole process again, so it brings everything back.”

Carlton Valvo II was a vice president for Cantor Fitzgerald, the

nation’s largest bond trader. He was one of 700 of the company’s

employees who perished, leaving behind a wife of nine years and a

7-year-old daughter.

Lori Valvo and the couple’s now 8-year-old daughter, Dante,

recently returned to New York after spending 10 days at their in-laws’ Glendale home.

“She talks about her dad periodically,” Carlton Valvo said of his

granddaughter. “Under the circumstances, I think she is holding up

pretty well.”

Valvo worries, though, about his daughter-in-law, who recently

received a master’s degree in film history from New York University.

“That’s kept her distracted,” Valvo said. “My concern is that now she

doesn’t have anything to do.”

Mother and daughter returned to New York on Sunday, and attended

Tuesday’s ground zero memorial ceremony along with the younger

Valvo’s brother and wife. Valvo’s father and mother, though, decided

against traveling to New York for the ceremony.

“My wife is just not emotionally ready to go back,” Carlton Valvo

said. “We want to keep it kind of low key.”

Instead, he attended a memorial service Tuesday at Glendale

Memorial Hospital, where he has been on staff for 30 years. His wife

did not attend.

During the service, which attracted about 100 hospital officials,

employees, volunteers and others, Valvo thanked both the hospital and

the Glendale community for its ongoing support.

“It’s been an extremely difficult year for our family, as you can

probably imagine,” Valvo told the audience. “The love you have given

back to us has been [wonderful].”

Immediately following last year’s attacks, the Valvos flew to

Toronto and then drove to New York to be with their daughter-in-law

and granddaughter.

Together they combed the hospitals and streets near ground zero,

looking for any sign of the younger Valvo.

“He’s in my mind all the time,” Carlton Valvo said of his son.

“But I’ve got other things to distract me, like work.”

Valvo graduated from Flintridge Preparatory School and St. Francis

High School in La Canada Flintridge. He was remembered during a

private memorial service in November in New York City his parents

attended.

Glendale Memorial Hospital, meanwhile, will display a mural in

Valvo’s memory that will be created by local children in the near

future. The project is a joint effort of Connect L.A. and Points of

Light -- a pair of community-based volunteer organizations -- along

with the city’s Arts and Culture Commission.