‘I’m coming home’: Last words haunt a 9/11 daughter 25 years later as she builds a legacy in his honor
Kayla Fallon Smith was eight years old when her father, William Lawrence Fallon Jr., an IT manager at Cantor Fitzgerald, was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Now 33, she recalls his final phone call home, in which he said "I'm getting out, I'm coming home" before urging her mother to turn on the news and hanging up; the family never heard from him again. Twenty-five years on, her account forms part of wider Fox News coverage marking the anniversary and highlighting the lasting impact on victims' families.
Smith has since become a licensed mental health counsellor and founded Trails of Purpose in 2019, a non-profit offering free counselling and equine-assisted therapy to military personnel, veterans, first responders and their families. She said the organisation, which has provided some 30,000 hours of free therapy, grew from her own experience of grief and a belief that "time heals all wounds" is a myth. She described equine therapy as offering a sense of connection and calm that she did not have access to as a child despite receiving trauma therapy after her father's death.
- Kayla Fallon Smith lost her father in the 9/11 attacks aged eight.
- His last words home were "I'm getting out, I'm coming home."
- She founded a therapy non-profit for veterans and first responders in his memory.
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Kayla Fallon Smith was eight when her father, William Lawrence Fallon Jr., an IT manager at Cantor Fitzgerald, died in the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. His final phone call home, in which he said he was on his way out and hung up after telling the family to turn on the news, has stayed with her ever since. He was never heard from again, and her recollection of that day forms part of Fox News's coverage marking the attacks' 25th anniversary.
Cantor Fitzgerald, a bond trading firm based in the World Trade Center's North Tower, lost a large share of its staff in the attacks, making it one of the companies most affected by the disaster. Now 33, Smith has become a licensed mental health counsellor, drawing on her own experience of childhood grief and loss.
In 2019 she founded Trails of Purpose, a non-profit that provides free counselling and equine-assisted therapy to military personnel, veterans, first responders and their families. The organisation says it has delivered around 30,000 hours of free therapy, work Smith links to her belief that grief does not simply fade with time.