When Jean Roger's family attends the Sept. 11 memorial ceremony in New York, they will be celebrating the life of a woman who had a gift for reaching out to others.
Roger was never meant to be on American Airlines Flight 11, the flight that crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center while carrying 92 passengers last year on that fateful day.
She hadn't been a flight attendant long and was required every three months to call in and check if she was needed the next morning to complete a crew when someone else wasn't able to make it.
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On Sept. 11 she was needed on the flight to Los Angeles.
Raised with her brother in Longmeadow, Mass., Roger was a swimmer and golfer in high school before she went off to become a Penn State student.
Roger, a Kappa Kappa Gamma sister, loved all the years she was at Penn State, said Thomas Roger, her father.
Roger graduated from Penn State in 1999 with a degree in environmental sciences.
She then found after graduation that the life of a flight attendant suited her.
Roger loved going places and meeting new people, which was why her job was perfect for her.
"She was very social and outgoing," said Thomas Roger, remembering his daughter.
"She had a lot of friends," Thomas Roger said.
Those who knew Roger remember her as never being bothered by anything.
They also recall her always being there ready with a smile.
"She always had one of those smiles that people talked about, always able to brighten someone's day," cousin Graham Westerberg said.
Westerberg, who thought of Roger as more of a sister than a cousin, plans to drive with his uncle, aunt and cousin to attend the memorial in New York.
"The whole family being there will not make it any easier, but we will be there for support," Westerberg said of the memorial.
While he knows she is gone, Westerberg says the toughest part is realizing that she will not be at the family's lake retreat when they next gather there.
"You are always expecting to see her," he said.
