The only regret of the day

The news that Osama Bin Laden is dead brought a sense of relief and joy. 

But it is tempered with bittersweet sadness.

Jerry Moran, former Navy photographer, was working for Naval Intelligence at the Pentagon when an airliner crashed into it on 9/11 taking him from his family.

In late March, word came that his widow Joey Moran did not show up for work at Naval Intelligence and had died of natural causes at the last home they shared together.

Jerry and Joey Moran were one of those storied couples who fall in love and share their joy with everyone in their midst. They were photographers and the Navy brought them together. 

Joey and Jerry mentored many a Navy photographer, my husband included. Jerry would cook endlessly for friends and Joey was the best hostess. She loved the Navy and the community of Navy photographers.

But life for her and their two children changed on 9/11. They were the living memorials to Jerry's life — a contrast to the simple seat with his name and date of birth at the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial.

It would have been good for her to see that her husband's murderer will no longer take fathers from their families.

She would have been proud that it was her beloved Navy that brought him down and buried him at sea, and even prouder the events were documented by Navy photographers.

It would have been nice had she lived to see this day.