Student takes break to spend time with family

Sophomore Jessie Moskal is taking the semester off from IU. She is at home in Brecksville, Ohio, spending time with her family, and has kept in touch with friends using her dad's e-mail address.\nBut Moskal hasn't heard from her father, William, since the attacks on the World Trade Center Sept. 11. He was attending a meeting at the headquarters of his employer, Marsh USA Inc., on the 100th floor of the north tower. \n"I've always considered myself to be a lucky person. I used to think I have such a perfect life," Moskal said. "Now I don't have that."\nBill Moskal, 50, last talked to his wife Lorraine around 8:05 a.m. Sept. 11, before he signed in at 9 a.m. on the opposite side of the building from where the plane hit. \nHis name was initially put on a "safe list" by his company, which meant he was alive when he left the World Trade Center. But her father's name was inadvertently placed on that list, and Moskal said her family knows he is not alive.\nThe Moskal family lives in the Cleveland suburb of Brecksville, a drive of about six hours and 45 minutes from Bloomington. When Moskal decided to return home several days after the attacks, a stranger from her town offered to fly her there in his private Learjet.\n"I'm not even sure who this guy is," Moskal said two days before she left. "But by letting other people help, you help them."\nBill Moskal grew up in Johnstown, Pa., and had lived with his family in Brecksville for six years. In the community, he coached youth baseball, including his 14-year-old son Andy's team. \nPeople -- both within the Brecksville and IU communities -- are helping the Moskal family in many ways.\n"I love this school. I feel so safe here," said Jessie, adding that her dad was a major part of the college search process, taking her to Miami, Florida and Washington, D.C., to look at potential schools.\nCitizens of Brecksville have held candlelight vigils, tied yellow ribbons all over town and continued to pray for the Moskal family. Personally, Moskal said she has found renewed comfort in her faith.\n"They always say how people in a crisis turn to God," she said. "I know my dad's OK, wherever he is."\nThe person Moskal said she worries about most is her mother, who met her father when they were both attending the University of Pittsburgh. Moskal said with her departure for college, her parents were "just starting to know each other all over again. Now, my mom's all alone. But she's so strong."\nIn situations like this, people inevitably look for lessons to take from them, insuring something positive comes out of such a tragic event, Moskal said.\n"Don't treat this like a tragedy. Good things are going to come out of this," Moskal said. "Carpe diem -- I've never believed more in that in my life. If you're going to believe in it, do it for the people in the buildings who died, the people in the airplanes, the firefighters, the policemen.\n"I feel very at peace. I'm just sorrowful."\nThe Associated Press contributed to this story.