Ana Medina

She Loved to Laugh
Anna Medina had 10 brothers and sisters, perhaps 60 nieces and nephews, and the circle of grief is even wider if you count the cousins, aunts, uncles and friends in Brooklyn and her native Puerto Rico. But those she held closest were her 11-year-old son, Leonardo Acosta, and her mother, Monserrate Gonzalez, 87, with whom she lived in Park Slope.

"She loved dancing and salsa; she loved to laugh," Yvonne Mendez said, recalling two decades of friendship. "She had such a good sense of humor. And she was a strong woman. If she had problems, she never showed them. But she was really dedicated to her mother and her son. That's what she lived for."

Ms. Medina, separated from the boy's father, had cheered all summer at her son's baseball games, and recently organized a barbecue for 35 family members in Prospect Park for her mother's birthday. On Sept. 11, she arrived at Aon Consulting, an insurance company on the 101st floor of 2 World Trade Center where she was an administrative assistant, at 8:30 a.m., a half- hour early, as was her habit.

She would have been 40 years old today. Her family had planned a surprise party, but will gather instead at a small Pentecostal church she attended. "She was so kind and generous," a brother, Freddy Medina, said. "We will pray for her soul."