Timothy Roy, NYPD

Timothy Roy, his wife and children, on recent family trip.

The first day of school for his children was special for Timothy Roy and his wife Stacy. Roy, a Sergeant with the New York City Police Department always took the day off from work and enjoyed being a part of his children’s rite of passage to adulthood.

This year however, as his son Timothy Jr. was to begin school on Tuesday, September 11, the elder Roy had a conflict. He was scheduled to appear in court and could not be there. He promised his son that he would be home that night to "hear all about it."

"That was the last time we saw him," said Stacy Roy. "I keep waiting for him to come through the door."

Timothy Roy Sr., is one of the more than 6,543 people who died or are still missing as a result of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan September 11.

After the plane hit the first tower, Roy was just getting out of court and called his wife. While he was not scheduled to be on duty that day, he told her, she said, that he was responding to the scene to see if he could be of any help.

"He said ‘I won't be home tonight for open school night, but I will call you later," said his wife.

Stacy Roy waited, but the second call never came.

"I kept calling the police station and they tried to reassure me saying that there was a problem with the phone lines and he probably couldn’t get through. But I knew," said Stacy. "Even if there weren’t calls getting out, he would have found a way to call me; he always did."

Difficult days turned into unbearable days for the Roy family as they waited for word from the site about the husband and father and brother and friend and neighbor who was described as a man who desperately loved his family and reached out to others whenever called upon to help.

"He is the best," said a neighbor, refusing, even now to accept the fact that he is gone.

Roy is a graduate of Massapequa High School; his wife is a graduate of Berner High School. They met at a local bowling alley when they were 16 and "have been together ever since," said Stacy.

"He was the class clown," said Stacy. "He could always make me laugh, even when I was mad at him."

Following high school Stacy moved to Europe and was living and working in London. Timothy Roy made the transatlantic trip to bring the woman he loved home and to marry her. The couple are married 11 years and have three children, Caitlyn, Brittney and Timothy Jr.

One of the most difficult things for Stacy Roy to deal with was to let her children know that their father was missing, and likely had lost his life in the tragedy.

"I didn’t give them any details the first few days, but I finally got a call from school," said Stacy. "They told me that the other children were talking and that I had better speak to them about the possibility that their father was gone. It was very hard."

As she sat on the porch of the home she and her husband are in the midst of renovating, Stacy Roy talked about their life together.

"He is such an extension of my own life," said Stacy. "We have been together for 20 years and I don’t know how to be without him."

At the Roy home, family and friends gather and wait—and pray. "I am asking everyone to pray," said Stacy Roy. "If enough people pray maybe God will say, okay, we don’t need him, send him back."

These days, Stacy Roy doesn’t sleep very much. She’s afraid, she said to dream the recurring dream that has haunted her all these days and nights since terrorists changed the world that bright, Tuesday morning.

"I hear him calling me and I see myself on my knees, digging and digging. And then I find him and he just looks up at me and says that all he wants to do is dance at his daughters’ weddings."