Andrea's Living Memorial

Written by Elise Cooper on Wednesday September 9, 2009

With 9/11 only a few days away, NewMajority spoke to many of the families about their loved ones. Gordon and Kathy Haberman told the story of how their 22 year old daughter, Andrea, arrived in New York for her first business meeting outside of Wisconsin, where she lived. The meeting was to be held at the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th.

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With 9/11 only a few days away, NewMajority spoke to many of the families about their loved ones.  Gordon and Kathy Haberman told the chilling story of how their 22 year old daughter, Andrea, died.  Andrea arrived in New York on September 10th for her first business meeting outside of Wisconsin, where she lived.  The business meeting took place at the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11th.  For days following 9/11 Gordon and Kathy searched for their daughter.  Gordon told NewMajority that “we would drop her picture off to many places since she did not know anyone in New York.”

While looking for Andrea  they saw a fire truck with two rescue dogs laying on their backs, a golden retriever and a German shepherd.  These dogs had their paws up because they had injured the pads on their feet from tirelessly looking for survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center.  After not being able to find Andrea they returned home. The Habermans decided to sponsor a dog in her name after seeing the rescue dogs in New York and because of Andrea’s attachment to the family dog, a golden retriever named Morgan.

In the Wisconsin paper Gordon’s sister read about a golden retreiver, Toby,  that was to be euthanized by a dog shelter.  An effort was undertaken to rescue the dog.  In 2002 the Habermans decided to sponsor this dog to be trained as a rescue dog in Ojai, California.  The dog was renamed “ANDY” in honor of Andrea and now partners with a Los Angeles area firefighter. Andy is trained to find humans buried alive and to stay with the victim until they can be found. Even though Andrea could not be rescued her spirit would live on through Andy.  Gordon and Kathy get updates regarding Andy’s progress and gratefully told NewMajority that like their daughter Andrea, “Andy is amazing.”
Category: News