The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 turned them into widows and the four Jersey Girls, as they became known, turned themselves into activists.
A decade after the attacks, at least two of them are still trying to make change in public policy. In doing so, they've broadened their focus from post-attack truth-finding, the cause that brought them together nearly 10 years ago.
For Breitweiser and Van Auken, the result of the main government inquiry and another on intelligence before the attacks were disappointing, leaving them with many unanswered questions.
For one, a section of a report that appeared to deal with al-Qaeda funding was redacted from one government report.
They're also not satisfied that the planes involved in the attack could not have been intercepted after the first one crashed into the World Trade Center.
"You want to say the first attack was a surprise? OK, the first attack was a surprise," Van Auken said. "If we have a group of people that are in charge of our defense and they can't manage to intercept an airplane for two hours?"
Breitweiser, a former Republican who campaigned for John Kerry during his 2004 run for president, said she's not satisfied that the country is safe enough now. "I wish the billions of dollars we spent on wars overseas could have been used at home," she said.
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