Honor the fallen of 9/11: Patricia A. Cody
Fond of angels, she always wore an angel pin on her shoulder. She called it her guardian angel.
Patricia didn't work at the WTC, she happened to be there for a meeting.
atricia A. Cody kept busy. During the day, she was a senior vice president and managing director at Marsh & McLennan. At night, she was a college student again, studying for a teaching degree at Fordham. Someday in the future, she imagined, she would settle into a new career as an English teacher.
"We were talking one day," said her husband, Thomas Cody, "and I said, `Quite frankly, the insurance industry is not kind to you when you become 50. Maybe you should think of what you want to do next."
Well, she loved to read. Part of her job involved teaching courses in insurance and management, and she felt she had a real knack for teaching. So four years ago, she enrolled at Fordham. She would have earned all the credits she needed by next June.
Mrs. Cody, 46, worked at Marsh's Midtown offices but was at a company meeting in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
She and her husband lived in Brigantine, N.J., a shore community. It made for a long commute, but she felt it was worth it to be near the water. They moved there in April last year, and planned to retire there.
She had a fondness for angels. She always wore an angel pin on her shoulder. "It was her guardian angel," said Beth Natiello, her daughter. "As far back as I can remember, she never left the house without it."
| I worked with Pat back when she was with A&A. She was one of the kindest and one of the most professional brokers I ever knew. |
| Walter Slack |
| This is to Pat - thank you for your presence in my heart this past year. It has been a sad, difficult time. Pat was married to my husband's lst cousin. She brought them together after years of not knowing where each other was. My husband has been blessed with his cousin back in his life - thank you Pat. |
| Toni Coffey |
| Pat, I'm so happy that Fordham presented an honorary degree to you. You worked so hard for it; going to school a couple of days a week after putting in a hard day' work. We are all so proud of you. You deserve it. Lorraine
P.S. I still miss you terribly. |
| Lorraine |
| I was Patricia's assistant. I only worked with Pat for a couple of years but I enjoyed them so much. Pat was a joy to work with; she made the job interesting yet fun. When you heard her laugh, you had to laugh along with her. I miss Pat so very much and will never forget her. She is in my thoughts every day. |
Patricia Cody seemed to have it all.
A hard-working insurance executive who started out in the secretarial pool, at 46 she had risen to managing director at Marsh & McLennan in midtown Manhattan. She and her husband had recently moved into their dream home, a sprawling, oceanfront house in Brigantine, N.J., with plenty of room for the couple's five energetic dogs. Cody used what little spare time remained to dote on her grandson, Johnny, 2, and to organize family events. She also decided to add graduate studies at Fordham University to her already packed life.
"She always wanted more and better," said her younger sister, Debbie McGowan-Sheehan. "She was pushing all the time."
But she wasn't pushing for an MBA. "She wanted to give up her high-paying job and work with kids," her sister said. Having succeeded in business, Cody chose to get a degree in teaching as a way to help others achieve. "She loved teaching," said her daughter, Beth Natiello, 25, of Dingmans Ferry, Pa. It was a natural extension of the on-the-job mentoring that Cody - who attributed her own success to early guidance from a female boss - provided to other women in her field.
That was just her way. Growing up in Massapequa and Queens, Cody, the oldest of five, "was kind of the little mother hen with the rest of us," her sister said. Even after she got married and moved to San Francisco in the late '70s, Cody made time for her siblings. She flew out to attend her brother Richard's graduation from Navy boot camp, and took her youngest brother, Paul, on a trip to Hawaii when he finished college.
"She sacrificed a lot for her friends and family," said her daughter. Cody may have worked full-time, but whether it meant leaving work early to attend a choir performance or taking a week off to help her adult daughter cope with the rigors of new parenthood, "I was always her first priority," her daughter said.
In the mid '80s Cody separated from her husband and moved back to the East Coast with her child. They settled in New Jersey, moving into a small house in an expensive neighborhood so that her daughter could attend a good public school.
After her divorce, Patricia married Thomas Cody in 1988. They lived in Basking Ridge, N.J., for more than a decade; in early 2001 they sold that house and a summer home on the Jersey Shore to live their dream: being by the ocean full time.
Living in Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City, meant a car-to-train commute of over two hours each way. That didn't bother Cody much. Armed with her cell phone and laptop, she used the time to do more work or to catch up on her reading.
Reading novels and magazines was how Cody relaxed, especially when sitting in a beach chair. "She loved the tranquillity of the water" her sister said. But those quiet moments were rare. "She never took much of a break," McGowan- Sheehan said.
Cody had planned to go to Hawaii in August to celebrate her birthday, but canceled the vacation after receiving a promotion. She was working hard in her new capacity on Sept. 11, when she went straight from the PATH train to a meeting at Marsh & McLennan's offices in the World Trade Center instead of heading to her own offices in midtown.
The loss has had an unexpected effect on the daughter who relied on Cody when times were tough. "I've never lost anyone real close to me, and I'm a real emotional person," said Natiello, whose son turned 2 less than a week after the tragedy. "But when all of this happened, her strength came to me. I thank her for it."
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It breaks my heart that Cody didn't get to fulfill her two dreams. As a teacher who loves Hawaii (I've vacationed there twice, some 20 years ago), I feel as if Cody and I could have been friends.
Excellent tribute, EB. And so moving. In fact, I'm sitting here stunned.
Here's my consolation...Her guardian angel was with her, right up to the last moment of Cody's life on this earth.
Comment by Always On Watch— 2006/09/09 @ 09:51 AM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2006/09/09 @ 10:28 AM — (Reply)
What a special woman. I'm with you, AOW, how sad she didn't get to achieve her two dreams but she at least got to live for a little bit in her dream home. What horrible luck...wrong place at the wrong time. She will be missed. Great job, EB.
Comment by esther— 2006/09/09 @ 01:44 PM — (Reply)
God bless her loved ones as they learn to live without her.
Comment by Cate— 2006/09/09 @ 03:00 PM — (Reply)
Very tragic and sad.
Comment by MissingLink— 2006/09/10 @ 09:17 AM — (Reply)
I linked to your tribute from 2996 tribute to victims of 9/11 - Terrence E Adderley
Comment by bernie— 2006/09/10 @ 09:44 AM — (Reply)
A great tribute to a wonderful woman. I see once lived in Basking Ridge, NJ. That's where my honoree lived.
Comment by seawitch— 2006/09/10 @ 05:07 PM — (Reply)
Thank you for bringing her memory to our sight!
Comment by Brooke— 2006/09/11 @ 02:43 AM — (Reply)
Thank you for introducing us to Patricia. I was impressed that she rose out of the secretarial pool and into management. She was clearly a hard worker. I am sad that she didn't get to finish the degree and teach kids. It sounds like she would have loved it. I know I do. I am glad she was able to live in her dream home, sad they didn't make it to Hawaii. Most of all I am sad that she was killed, working, doing her job, living her life.
You have done a good job of celebrating her life.
My 2996 tribute for Laura Gilly is up on my site.
Comment by Suzi— 2006/09/11 @ 05:57 AM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2006/09/11 @ 06:52 AM — (Reply)
That pic of her holding the baby. I will remember her each time I pick up one of my grandchildren. How precious she was, how great the loss.
Comment by Mysterious Lady— 2006/09/11 @ 10:02 AM — (Reply)
Likewise verified.
You may have noticed that the main site for 2996 has gone down, due to the extremely high volume of traffic this project generated. Mirror sites have been put up that show the list of names and links. If you can, please change your link to the list to one of the following sites:
• http://www.madmommajen.com/?p=3
• http://bamapachyderm.com/2996-the-911-tributes/
• http://www.onebigdog.net/2996-tributes/
Thank you for taking the time to write this tribute.
Comment by Kim— 2006/09/11 @ 03:52 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Jean— 2007/07/21 @ 06:21 AM — (Reply)
I would like to write about Patrice on this sad day on my blog as a memorial to her. Reading about her life, I feel I almost know her. Her death is a horrible loss. I am so sorry.
Comment by WR— 2007/09/11 @ 02:56 AM — (Reply)