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“After we lost our daughter, we lost everything.”

Daejin (L) and Kyung Woo Ryook (R) lost their daughter, Christina Sunga Ryook, on September 11, 2001. Here, Daejin talks to Sunga's friend Lauren Woo about life without his daughter.

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Recorded in New York, NY

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Credits

Produced by Vanara Taing.

Facilitated by Veronica Ordaz.

Recorded in partnership with National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Transcript

Click here to read the transcript for this story.

Interview transcript

Lauren Woo (LW): What do you miss most about Sunga?

Daejin Ryook (DR): Her big smile. And, uh, she loved to call three to four times a week. "Hi Daddy." In Korean, "Hi Ahpah." "How are you doing?" "Did you have dinner?"

(LW): Did that make you smile?

(DR): Of course. I miss that. I miss that. Maybe if she's alive right now she could get married, she got some baby, but that's not possible. It's not gonna happen to me.

(LW): If you could talk to Sunga right now, what would you want to say?

(DR): I'm sorry and I love you. Because, I never said I'm sorry to my daughter. I never said I love you to my daughter. I was kind of tough father to Sunga.

(LW): You wanted her to be tough.

(DR): Uh-huh. But even though I didn't say that kind of words, probably she knows it.

(LW): Oh, she knows that...

(DR): Probably she knows.

(LW): She knows it. I know that.

How are you different now than you were before you lost Sunga?

(DR): Sunga was an only child. That means only me and my wife has to live on. When we go to bed--

(LW): Yeah...

(DR):--that time is kind of pretty lonely and sad. We just sit on couch, watch the TV, 12 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, sometimes 3 o'clock in the morning. We don't have any, uh, desire to work or desire to eat, desire to sleep. Nothing. After we lost our daughter, we lost everything.