Earlier this year, Don was pressed up against the ropes, video camera in hand, at the Turin Olympics to watch Emily's comeback. She made it back four years after terrible injuries to her feet forced her out of the Salt Lake City games, where post-Sept. 11 passions ran high.

She was heartbroken to miss those Olympics but has been through enough to know a more lasting kind of heartbreak.

Even with that perspective, Cook had a lot to overcome. Her injuries were so devastating, doctors said she'd be lucky to walk normally, let alone be an aerials skier again. But she made it. And her dad was close by, as he has been since the move five years ago.

"After 9-11, it made me so much more proud to represent my family as an American athlete," Cook said. "My family was completely nuts during the Olympics. Half my family was in Torino. I had the rest of my family at home, having parties, watching on TV, sending a million e-mails a day.

"Representing our country and representing my family at the Olympics — that was about as special as it gets."

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THE NEWEST MEMBER: Sept. 11 is a day to celebrate in the Nixon household.

Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon's son, Chase, turns 5 on the 11th. He was born a few hours after the attacks.

Nixon was traveling with the Sox from New York to Tampa when he got the call from his expectant wife, Kathryn. She had gone into labor. Trot caught a plane back home. But the plane was diverted to Norfolk, Va., when all planes were grounded after the attacks.

Trot ended up driving back to Boston and didn't get to see his son born at 1:26 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.

In the five years since his child was born, Nixon has become a much more spiritual person.

"I was upset because this happened to our country and to all the people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania," Nixon said. "But in the same sense, I look at what a wonderful gift I was given with the gift of life that God allowed my wife and I to have, and a lot of people to have."

He said he was grateful to the Boston media for running stories of his son's birth — a bright spot in an otherwise unrelenting torrent of sad and demoralizing news that week.

Someday, Nixon says, he'll explain to Chase the circumstances surrounding his birthday.

"The big thing is, we're going to tell Chase that when he gets to a certain age that he wasn't a jinx. He was a huge bright spot," Nixon said. "I think about it a little bit. You remember what happened. But for the most part, it's his birthday, and it'll be crazy around our house with his friends running around."

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