A Chicago-area man tragically drowned while rescuing children struggling in Lake Michigan. This act of heroism came two decades after he survived the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.
43-year-old Luke Laidley was boating with others off the coast of Winnetka, Illinois, when several children fell from a raft being towed by the boat. Witnesses recounted Laidley's selfless act of jumping into the water to help. Sadly, he went under before being pulled back onto the boat by others. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Evanston.
Laidley's family shared in his obituary that this was not his first brush with death. At 21, he was working on his second day at Morgan Stanley in the South Tower of the World Trade Center when it was struck by United Airlines Flight 175. His family's obituary describes him as living a "hero's song," risking his life for the struggling children just as he faced the unimaginable on 9/11. He leaves behind a wife and three young children.
