After Christie Coombs' husband was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, friends, relatives and strangers stepped up to help her family. They brought them food, took them to sporting events and concerts and donated money for the three children to go to college.
Within two months, still awash in grief, she felt compelled to repay the kindness. She knew other families were struggling more than hers was, so she organized a yard sale and auction at her children's schools. She raised about $50,000 for other families who had lost people that day.
"From there it became a way to take the negative energy caused by grief and turn it into something positive," said Coombs, a resident of Abington, Mass., who graduated from the University of Arizona journalism school in 1982. Her efforts evolved into the Jeffrey Coombs Memorial Foundation, which helps families who have been affected by death or illness, awards scholarships to local high school graduates and supports military families.
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Christie Schmitt Coombs met her future husband at the UA. Jeffrey earned a business degree from the UA in 1981 and the couple married three years later and had three children. Matthew is now 23, Meaghan is 21and Julia is 17.
"They're a lot like their dad," Coombs said. "They're really strong kids."
On Sept. 11, 2001, Jeffrey Coombs boarded American Airlines Flight 11 in Boston. He was headed to Los Angeles on business. His plane was the first to hit the World Trade Center.
The couple had planned a celebration when Jeffrey got home from L.A. Christie's birthday is Sept. 15 and Jeffrey's was the 18th. He would have turned 43 that year.
Instead, she planned a funeral.
For Coombs - a freelance newspaper reporter - no amount of information would be too much. She would like to know how much her husband knew during the flight.
"If I could have been a fly on the wall of that plane and survived for my kids, I would have," she said.
The day he died, family members and friends gathered at her house to offer comfort. But all Coombs wanted was to have her kids home from school.
"I had to tell them in 7- to 13-year-old terms that a really bad man had taken over Daddy's plane and he wasn't coming home."
Their loss was huge. Jeffrey was genuine, kind and had a great sense of humor, Christie said. He worked hard, but family came first.
"He considered his kids to be the best accomplishment in his life," she said.
While some people prefer to grieve in private, Coombs spoke openly and started the foundation.
"I think it's amazing," said her older sister Maggie Dyet, a nurse at University Medical Center. "I know that Christie thinks every time she's able to do something good for someone else, Jeffrey would have approved."
It's important to talk about 9/11 "to keep the country educated and to make sure that the country doesn't forget," Coombs said.
"I think one place 9/11 put us is a step up in the unity scale," she said. She recalled how politicians put aside their differences after the attacks and everyone seemed a little more compassionate.
"At the same time it has also made us more fearful of people who are different from us," she said. She remembers teaching her children about the dangers of racial profiling the first time they boarded a plane after Sept. 11.
The tragedy "has taught us to be more vigilant and to look over our shoulder," she said. "We don't live in fear; we live in awareness."
Today, Coombs will attend a commemorative service organized by the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund. Afterward, she will perform community service as part of a National Day of Service and Remembrance, which began in 2009.
The Coombs family also is designing a Sept. 11 memorial in Abington using steel from the World Trade Center.
"We miss him every moment of the day," Coombs said. "You can't change what happened. You can only change how you respond to it."
