Irondequoit native Laura Ames Acord is remembered with a tribute website, fundraiser | News

After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, “Laura’s spirit for the city was not there anymore,” recalled her sister, Trish Fischer, of Pittsford.

After all, Irondequoit native Laura Ames Acord was a Sept. 11 survivor. She escaped the World Trade Center, where she was working on that fated day. She was 36.

About 10 years later, Laura died.

A “hidden casualty”

Her family believes she was “a hidden casualty” of Sept. 11 — one who survived, but because of the toxins to which they were exposed, faced chronic, severe health problems and extreme medical expenses for many years.

“The doctors said there was no way they could absolutely say it could be traced to the toxins in the air after Sept. 11,” said her mother, Carol Ames, a former Irondequoit resident who has resided in Webster for 12 years. “But they said it made a lot of sense that it was a trigger and a delayed manifestation of those toxins.”

Laura, who was otherwise healthy prior to Sept. 11, developed a rare lung disease called auto-immune pulmonary vasculitis around 2006. She became more ill each year, until she died from complications related to her lung condition Feb. 13, 2011.

“She was fine before Sept. 11,” Fischer said, adding that doctors told the family they knew of only five cases like Laura’s on record.

“And even after her diagnosis, she was full of life,” said another sister, Cindy Ames. “She never gave up ... But she knew she would not be better.”

Full of talent

Laura was the youngest of Irondequoit’s six Ames sisters.

She was very creative, Cindy said, and played the saxophone and appeared in the musicals on the Eastridge High School stage. Like her sisters, she played field hockey.

“Anything she tried, she could do; she was a kind of a Renaissance woman,” Fischer added.
In recent years, Laura took up photography.

“Her sharp observational skills and a visual artistry make her photos compelling, beyond snapshots of the average hobbyist,” Fischer said. “I think of each slide show as a gift she gave us. ... We never saw many of them (the photos) before (her death).”

It was Fischer who has lovingly built a memorial website to her sister, including collections of those photos, set to music.

“She filled our family with her own special kind of love and joy,” Fischer said. “She was brilliant, first of all, but also funny and snarky. ... She had a very unique perspective on things.”

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