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Victim’s Parents Relive The Grief With Bin Laden’s Death

Sept. 11 victim Christine Olender (CBS)

Sept. 11 victim Christine Olender (CBS)

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CHICAGO (CBS) — For relatives of the thousands of victims who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, there is a common thread: the pain of reliving the loss of a loved one.

CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker talked with one Chicago family.

Grief still overwhelms Stella and John Olender when they talk about their daughter, Christine.

“I miss her smile and her goodness,” John says.

Stella says her daughter was a wonderful person who called sometimes twice a day

“Sometimes it’s unbelievable that it’s gone,” she told Tucker.

Christine was working on the 96th floor of Tower One on 9/11. She was the assistant manager at the Windows to the World restaurant.

John Olender says he and his wife saw the plane hit their daughter’s building nearly 10 years ago and she immediately came to mind.

“The building was burning and we knew she was dead,” he said.

The photo of a young Christine is a fixture in the window of the clothing store the couple owns. Christine was 38 when she died in the attacks. While the Olenders have heard the reports that the man responsible for their daughter’s death — and the deaths of thousands of others — was killed by U.S. forces, they’d like proof.

Still there they have hope that if it really was Osama bin Laden, his death will make a difference in the world.

“If it was him, maybe we’ll have peace and our soldiers will be able to come home,” Stella Olender said.

Peace is what everyone would like, but the Olenders, like other relatives of 9/11 victims, are concerned that new terrorist acts will be committed in the wake of bin Laden’s death.

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