Where You Left Me
Until Doug was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, and she became a widow at age thirty-five—a “9/11 widow,” no less, a member of a select group bound by sorrow, of which she wanted no part. Though completely devastated, Jennifer still considered herself blessed. Doug had loved her enough to last a lifetime, and after his sudden death, she was done with the idea of romantic love—fully resigned to being a widowed single mother . . . until a chance encounter with a gregarious stranger changed everything.
An unlikely love story set in the wake of September 11, Where You Left Me is a quintessentially New York story—at once Jennifer’s tribute to the city that gave her everything and proof that second chances are possible.
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Book details:
- Gallery Books |
- 256 pages |
- ISBN 9781451621433 |
- May 2012
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): Where You Left Me
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- Author Photo (jpg): Jennifer Gardner Trulson
Photograph by Peter Chin(47.6 MB)
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1
“It’s coming down,” I said to myself as I blearily looked out my office window on the thirtieth floor at 1585 Broadway. The snowstorm had picked up, and Times Square slept under a deep cover of untouched snow. It was a rare sight, even at 1:00 a.m.—not a car or pedestrian to be seen for blocks under the blazing neon lights and billboards. I was used to working late, churning out contracts, memos, and research day and night as a third-year associate at a law firm. And normally, I’d take a town car home at this hour, but not even taxis were out in this weather—nothing...
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INTRODUCTION
“I feel very lucky,” Jennifer Gardner Trulson told the thousands of mourners at her husband’s funeral. “Most people never get what I had. Doug loved me enough to last a lifetime.” An executive at the international brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Doug was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, leaving behind a grieving wife and two young children. But Jennifer’s story of sudden and devastating loss is also one of hope, healing, and the ability to love again after suffering the unthinkable. Where You Left Me is an intensely personal account of the events and aftermath of that tragic day, as well as a poignant testament to the possibility of second chances and the enduring power of love.
TOPICS & QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
- Where You Left Me opens with Jennifer stranded at her midtown Manhattan office late at night during a severe snowstorm and Doug coming to her aid. Why do you think she chose to begin her memoir with this anecdote?

9/11 Widow's Unlikely Love Story
