Twenty-five years after 9/11, the daughter of a hero remembers the mother she lost

Anna Sweeney Rossman is the daughter of Madeline Amy Adams, a flight attendant aboard American Airlines flight 11 who was credited with supplying details about the attack as it unfolded to authorities on the ground. Illustration: Guardian Design/Photo courtesy of Anna Sweeney Rossman

Anna Sweeney Rossman was only five years old when her mother, flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney, died onboard an airliner that terrorists hijacked and deliberately flew into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. And for years, she said in an interview on Wednesday, Rossman’s grief primarily centered on her mother’s absence from certain milestones in her life.

She recalled how planning her 2023 wedding – particularly shopping for a dress – hit her especially hard without her mom there. And Rossman said it was as much a blow to not have her mom there for the birth of her daughters, each younger than two, as the US prepared to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday.