Metro

The 9/11 kids are all right

The kids back in 2002.

The kids back in 2002. (New York Post)

They’ve done everybody proud. In 2002, a group of 12 Long Island schoolkids who lost parents on 9/11 agreed to sit down with The Post and tell their stories. Nine years later, they have been reunited as remarkable young adults. They’ve graduated high school, earned college degrees, gotten engaged, married, started families of their own. And — while even the smallest milestones remain marked by indelible loss — each has met the personal challenges of the past decade with determination, spirit and grace.

JENNIFER, ASHLEY and LYNDSEY HEROLD,

Farmingdale

Jen Herold, 26, is paying it forward. Among the many acts of kindness she was shown after the death of her dad, Aon riskmanagement supervisor Gary Herold, “My highschool counselor was a huge part of getting me through it all. Without that help, I don’t know where I’d have been.’’ Now, newly graduated from St. John’s University with a master’s degree in counseling, she’s looking for a job where she can have the same sort of impact. “I knowwhat it’s like to think you can’t get through something, but you can,’’ she says. Her sister Ashley, 22, studying at Molloy College to be a math teacher, says her studies have given her a new perspective on the terror attacks. “I took a class on ‘Beyond 9/11’ and it answered questions I didn’t even know I had. I lived through 9/11, but I didn’t want to know anything about it; it was just too hard. Now I want to learn.’’ For Lyndsey — who looks like her dad and shares his reserved manner and sarcastic wit—the sense of loss has deepened over the years. “I was so young when it happened, I really didn’t understand it all,’’ says the 18-year-old Nassau Community College student. “I didn’t have as much time with him or as many memories, but I really just try to think about the good times I did have.’’ Last month, in the latest Herold family milestone, the three “daddy’s girls’’ took a trip to Greece — where Lyndsey and Ashley helped plot Jen’s surprise marriage proposal from her longtime beau. “My dad,’’ says Jen, “would approve.’’

COMPLETE 9/11 ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE

JACQUELYN, STEPHEN and DAVID HOBBS,

North Baldwin

Jackie Hobbs worries that she’ll forget. “There’s already so much I don’t remember about my time with my dad. My biggest fear is that it will all fade away,’’ says the eldest of the gregarious, closeknit kids of Cantor Fitzgerald energy broker Thomas Hobbs. To keep his memory alive, Jackie, 22, embraced her father’s favorite ball club, the Mets, joking that she’s become nearly as much a fanatic as he was. And — newly graduated from Mount Saint Mary College with a marketing degree—she’s determined to land a job with the Amazin’s. For David, 18, and Stephen, 20, it’s the smallest events, like teaching themselves to shave, that make them miss their dad. “Or walking off the field after a game, the other players all have their dads there to talk about a bad call or a good game. That’s still really hard,’’ says David, who just started his freshman year at Mount Saint Mary. “My mom just wants to know what I want for dinner.’’ The Hobbs household was awash in emotion when Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in May. Days afterward, they planted a tree in their front yard in their dad’s honor. “I realized this year that it’s been half my life that he’s gone,’’ says Stephen, a junior studying criminal law at Marist College. “I think all of us try not to dwell on the bad stuff. We appreciate life and what we have, because we know our family is not invincible. ’’

CHRIS WIEMAN,

Rockville Centre

“It’s another year of moving forward, of trying to stay positive,’’ says Chris, 22, reflecting on the 10th anniversary of the death of his Aon marketingexecutive mom, Mary Lenz Wieman. He’s made it this far, he says, with the help of a close group of friends. “That first year, people talked to me because they felt sorry for me,’’ he recalls. “But my real friends and their families have been through everything, standing by me. They are my second family.’’ And his own family has slowly rebuilt their lives. Chris recently completed bookkeeping courses at TRI Business and Career Center and is working parttime at a local Marshalls while he jobhunts. His dad reinstated “Wiemfest,’’ their annual backyard bash, and let the family get a dog—a rescue greyhound named Miracle. “I’m suremymom is rolling her eyes,’’ Chris says, “because my dad always used to say no to getting one.’’ Chris says the 9/11 anniversary doesn’t get easier. “It’s so public, it’s just very difficult,’’ he says. “But I do think it’s important that future generations of kids know what happened. I don’t want it to become overlooked, for people to one day say, ‘Oh, it was just another day.’ Because it wasn’t.’’

LAUREN AND ANDREW ERKER,

Farmingdale

Lauren Erker can’t believe it’s been 10 years. “It seems like it was just yesterday, I remember it so distinctly,’’ she says, recounting how she went to bed the night after the terror attacks, hoping that her dad, Marsh & McLennan systems analyst Erwin Erker, might call to say he was OK. From the minute they knew he wasn’t, the Erker family was determined to honor him by living the life he’d have wanted for them. “My dad was very funny, just a very happy guy who lived for his family,’’ says Lauren, 22. “His attitude has kept us going.’’ She just graduated from Johnson & Wales University — her dad would be impressed that she did it in just three years — and is looking for a job in Web design. The Erkers continue their tradition of taking family road trips and often sit around the kitchen table reminiscing about Erwin and his talent for making up song parodies, or how he’d root for the Yankees with his daughter and the Mets with his son. Andrew looks and acts so much like his father that his sister and mom joke that he’s possessed. “It is true, how alike we are,’’ says Andrew, 19, proud of the comparison. Like his dad, Andrew — who attends Nassau Community College and is eyeing business school — is a rabid sports fan and keeps a vigilant watch on the family finances. “I think we grew up a lot faster than our friends,’’ says Lauren. “We don’t get as upset at the little things, because we’ve already experienced the worst.’’

RONNIE, TOMMY and BOBBY GIES,

Merrick

When Ronnie Gies got married last month, he knew his dad was there in spirit. “There were definitely points when I looked up and knew he was watching,’’ said the middle son and namesake of fallen 9/11 firefighter Lt. Ronnie Gies, of Squad 288 in Maspeth, Queens. “I would have given anything for him to have been there.’’ The August wedding marked the latest family milestone for the Gies brothers — Tommy, 28, Ronnie, 26, and Bobby, 23 — who said they can’t believe how much has changed in a decade. All three sons have followed in their father’s footsteps. Tommy, now married and the doting father of a 2-year-old daughter, was 18 when he visited his dad’s firehouse just days before 9/11 and made up his mind to join the FDNY. He’s now a member of Ladder 147 in Brooklyn. Ronnie had been dreaming of a career in sports marketing when the towers fell. “It made me realize what an unbelievable job it was, to be a firefighter,’’ he says. “Growing up, I never felt like I had to follow in my dad’s footsteps. There was never pressure. It was something I realized, after September 11, that I wanted to do.’’ He’s now with Brooklyn’s Ladder 175. Youngest brother Bobby is champing at the bit to get into the FDNY Academy. He’d already been accepted to the class of 2009 when it was canceled because of budget cuts. The next entrance exam is in January. “I’m very anxious to get started,’’ he says. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s important for me to follow in my dad’s footsteps and my brothers’, because I see howmuch they love it.’’ Ronnie says, “In the 16 years I had with my dad, he showed me enough about how to be a good father to shape me into the kind of dad I want to be.’’

jeane.macintosh@nypost.com