9/11: Husband of Welsh victim to be played in Netflix film (2024)

The husband of a Welsh person who died in the 9/11 attacks has recalled the last moment he saw his wife alive.

Charles Wolf had been married to Katherine Wolf, from Swansea, for 13 years prior to the attacks.

His fight for compensation for the victim's families is told in the new Netflix film Worth and Mr Wolf is portrayed by Emmy winner Stanley Tucci.

"She went to work, I kissed her goodbye at 8:06, and I never heard from her again," Mr Wolf told BBC Radio Wales.

Katherine started work on the 97th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center just two weeks before the attacks.

"At 8:46 the first plane had hit her office directly, flew right over our apartment at less than 1,000ft above the ground.

"Someone on the street yelled that a plane had gone into the World Trade Center and I said 'are you kidding, my wife works there'."

Three days after the attacks, Mr Wolf still had not received any confirmation about what had happened to Katherine, so he went to her company's headquarters, elsewhere in Manhattan.

"I walked in and I couldn't even say my name, I just froze, I tried to tell them who I was and I couldn't even get my name out."

He was then taken to meeting held by the company for families of those who worked in the north tower office.

An executive of the company told the group that the highest floor anyone had managed to escape from was the 91st, six floors below Katherine's office.

"When I heard that I said 'well that's it, no way, she's gone' I came to that conclusion myself.

"It was a relief, what's worse is not knowing."

After the attacks Mr Wolf led a campaign to ensure the families and dependants of victims of the attacks were fairly compensated.

He was unhappy with the US-government run September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the man who had been assigned to run it, attorney Ken Feinberg.

"I decided I was going to do something and the press would be my megaphone, and I was going to do it for the widows, and that's what I did," Mr Wolf said.

He set up the website fixthefund.org to pressure those in charge to allocate funds more fairly, and to more people, and it worked.

After adequate changes were made Mr Wolf renamed his website The Fund is Fixed!

He applied for it himself in 2003.

His story in Worth, which stars Oscar nominees Michael Keaton and Stanley Tucci as Ken Feinberg and Mr Wolf respectively.

"The movie is actually very very good, I'm very pleased with it, as is Ken Feinberg," Mr Wolf said, but admitted he was not aware of who Tucci was before he was cast in the film.

The par met at Sundance Film Festival in Utah and Mr Wolf said: "He knew who I was, I stood up to introduce myself, I said 'I'm Charles Wolf' he said 'I recognise you', we had a lovely personal talk afterwards, just alone, face-to-face.

"He said 'you know I lost my wife', I looked at him and asked if that was why he chose to do the film, he said it was a big part of it.

"We looked at each other, as only two men who had lost the love of their life can, we just about burst into tears the both of us, and we just grabbed and hugged each other, and just hugged and hugged and hugged."

Mr Wolf said he has not been to Wales since 2002, adding: "I miss it, it's so beautiful and I really want to get back.

"Once 2003 happened and the [9/11] British memorial at Grosvenor Square opened up I knew I had to make the break, it was just too emotional to go back there."

He said he would always miss and love Katherine, but made a vow he would not let the terrorists take the rest of his life away.

"You have to be able to move along, moving on does not mean you've forgotten the person, moving on does not mean you don't love the person anymore.

"That person will look down upon you and say 'I want you to live the rest of your life happily', she was in my life for 13 years, and I am very very grateful for that, very grateful."

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