Partial Story Excerpted from The Bergen County Record ~ Dec. 13, 2001

Seeking Solace in Spirit World Kin of Sept. 11 Victims Look to Mediums for Help
By Daniel Sforza, Staff Writer

It's been three months since Sumay Chen heard from her brother Dennis, who worked in Building Four of the World Trade Center. The father of two small children is probably gone, but she has not given up hope.

“I really don't know if my brother is dead,” the Wyckoff woman said. “I'm still hoping he's in a coma, or has amnesia. Maybe his name got crossed up.”

“Until they call me and say we found his wallet or we found . . . “ she said, her voice trailing off and finishing softly with “him.”

That “desperation” as Chen put it, led her to seek the services of a spiritual medium -- a person who professes to see and speak with the dead.

Chen went to Lauren Thibodeau, a spiritual medium who works out of Princeton and Manhattan. Chen had hoped not only to make contact with her brother, but possibly to find out that he did not “cross over.”

Thibodeau said many family members of the terror victims hope that mediums will provide some indication that their loved ones are still alive. 

“I think people want me to say he's in a hospital somewhere and he's had amnesia,” said Thibodeau, who has done readings for several people affected by the trade center attack. “I must represent it as I sense it. I don't want people to have false hope. Instead, I want them to have real healing.”

Part of the reason Chen went to Thibodeau was to search for proof of her brother's death.

Brian B., a Manhattan client of Thibodeau who declined to give his full last name, first tried calling (John) Edward, but was referred to Thibodeau after learning that Edward has a three-year waiting list.

“There wasn't a lot of guesswork,” he said. “She hit a lot of home runs with me.”

Brian lost his girlfriend and soon-to-be fiancée, Nina, on Sept. 11. She worked on the upper floors of the World Trade Center. Still, he went to Thibodeau hoping that Nina was still alive.

“I was hoping [Thibodeau] would maybe touch base with someone else, maybe my mom and dad, and they would tell me, you are barking up the wrong tree,” Brian said. “Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.”

During his reading, Brian was told very specific information he believes could have come only from someone speaking to Nina.

“We were always kind of running late in the mornings and there was just this kind of little thing we did,” Brian said. “We would both hop in the shower, I would take the rag and wash her feet and she would wash my feet.

“You can't guess at that,” he said. “It was significant to me.” Another indication for Brian that Thibodeau was indeed in contact with Nina was a running joke about Nina being one-eighth French.

Thibodeau “mentioned [Nina] was saying a few words to her in French,” Brian said. “There were just little things like that. Obscure things that she would pull out and just mention to me.”

Brian said it helped him so much in dealing with Nina's death that he plans to take some of Nina's friends for a reading.

“She helped me settle a few things.”