Community Corner
Changed by 9/11: Lorelei Galardi, Former Entertainment Producer
Galardi says her sister's death was clearly linked to her time volunteering at Ground Zero.
One and a half years ago, Southampton resident Lorelei Galardi lost her sister to lung disease, which she believes was directly related to the six months her sister, Joann Galardi, spent volunteering at Ground Zero with the Red Cross after 9/11.
“Her lungs were just a mess,” Galardi said. “She was on a ventilator for two months.” Garlardi herself had moved out of New York City to Orlando just two weeks before the terrorist attacks. She lived in downtown Brooklyn and worked in Manhattan, where she could see the Twin Towers from her office building.
“I was talking to the people I used to work with,” she said of the day of 9/11. “They were in my old office crying.” She only stayed in Orlando for a year after that. Her profession was in entertainment production and, due to the terrorist attacks, work opportunities there dried up. She moved to Southampton, where she had summered in the past at her grandfather’s place on Gin Lane, and has remained since.
