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Matthew Bocchi was still in fourth grade when his father died in the September 11th terrorist attacks. It was just the first in a series of painful events in the life of a New Jersey boy.
“In many ways, I love seeing a new person on September 12th,” he told Fox News. “
Bocchi’s grief ultimately left him vulnerable to sexual abuse by family members who had spoken to him through his father’s death. I turned to
But I eventually became sober, relying on my father’s spirit. Now he spends his time sharing his experiences and spreading his message of resilience, inspiration and hope.
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“It was stuck in my head.”
Botch’s father, John Botch, drove daily to his office on the 105th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
At 8:45 a.m. on September 11, just minutes after the Boeing 676 crashed into the tower, Elder Bocce called his wife.
“You are the love of my life. I will love you forever,” the loner’s father said to his wife before hanging up, the young loner told Fox News. She was one of about 3,000 victims of Sunday’s terrorist attack 21 years ago.
The days that followed were bleak, he said, but I still remember details from it. I remember
He walked into the living room and saw footage of the Twin Towers playing.
“I remember seeing an image of someone falling off a building,” Botch told Fox News. “And it was something that never left my mind.”
Growing up, I wanted to know more about my father’s death, but my mother didn’t want to talk about it. So did his father’s brother.
But a married uncle “intervened and wanted to open his arms and talk about it,” Boch said.
A teenager asked his uncle if he thought his father was one of the people who jumped off the tower.
“He told me, ‘Yeah, he did. He did that,'” Botch told Fox News. started.
“By watching the footage, I felt like I could live his final moments with him,” Bocchi said.
Finally, he saw graphic images of the bodies of 9/11 victims.
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“I felt sick very quickly,” said the loner.
He called his uncle, who came to his house half an hour later. When I was crying while pointing at the computer monitor, my uncle came in.
“Within five minutes, he took advantage of me,” Bocchi told Fox News.
According to Bocchi, the sexual abuse continued for about a year. He believes his uncle’s claim that it is “normal” and that if he says anything, it is he who will face the repercussions.
“I was so embarrassed,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t go to anyone, or at least I felt like I couldn’t go to anyone.
It seems that I have carried it with me for the rest of my life.
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“What I do know now is that obviously he was using all this trauma and this hurt I had, this pain, for his own pleasure.” abused me by exploiting the vulnerability of
He later learns that his father is believed to have died in the stairwell rather than actually jumping off the North Tower.
When I entered college, he felt alienated.
“People looked at me like the kid who lost his father on 9/11, and I felt like that was the label I always carried with me.
He began experimenting with hard drugs such as cocaine, opiates and benzos.
“I remember how I felt then,” said the botch. “All this pain I had, all this pain is gone.”
“That was what I was going after,” he continued.
Botch abused drugs throughout his college days. After graduating and working in finance, he also started selling opium and marijuana.
“And then I got arrested,” Botch told Fox News. “I thought maybe that would be the moment I said, ‘Okay, I’ve had enough.’ It wasn’t. “
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sky, blue sky
After that, we felt “stuck”.
“I didn’t know which way to go,” he said.
One day, we went outside and looked up. He was amazed at its blueness.
“I came back on the morning of 9/11 when my father died,” he told Fox News.
I sent a sign to my father asking for help. A fly landed on the railing he was leaning against and started acting strange. That was it. We immediately went into detox. He spent his 30 days in rehab before joining a sober life.
“We knew there was a lot to work on,” said the botch. “I was working with my sponsor at the time and I told him what had happened to my uncle.”
He decided to file a complaint with the police. Bocce said his uncle was charged with second-degree sexual assault and sentenced to seven years in prison.
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Since quitting drinking in 2016, I’ve found my job in the financial industry to be “miserable.” He began sharing his stories in high school, encouraging young people to open up about their struggles. It was his only payment for the speaking contract at the time.
In 2019, he quit his job. The following year he published a book, Sway, detailing his journey. Today, the 30-year-old loner speaks full-time at high schools, colleges, and other organizations.
“There aren’t many people in this world who are openly honest about everything they’ve been through,” he told Fox News. I think people can be open about their struggles.”