'I'm getting out': 9/11 dad's final words haunt daughter 25 years after he never returned
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, Kayla Fallon Smith still carries the memory of the final conversation she had involving her father, William Lawrence Fallon Jr.
He was 38 when he went to work at the World Trade Center on that September morning in 2001.
His daughter was only eight. What followed was a phone call that would become permanently etched into her life.
Kayla spoke to Fox News Digital on Friday, September 11, and shared the horrific memories of the attacks that scarred her forever.
Kayla Fallon Smith was 8 years old when her father called home from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He told her mother, "I'm getting out. I'm coming home."
— Fox News US (@FoxUSNews) September 11, 2026
He never did. William Fallon Jr. was an IT manager at Cantor Fitzgerald, 38 years old, killed when the towers… pic.twitter.com/9L3OKmbUOg
Kayla Fallon Smith recalls father's last words
Fallon worked as an IT manager for Cantor Fitzgerald and had a familiar morning routine.
He would leave early for work, then call home before his daughters headed to school.
For Smith, those calls were part of an ordinary childhood. Her father would sometimes describe the view from the tower, telling his daughters about the weather above the city.
His early schedule also allowed him to finish work sooner so he could spend time with his children, including taking Smith to dancing school.
She remembered hearing his voice on the morning of September 11, 2001, just as she had on countless other mornings.
But later that morning, her father called again. This time, Smith’s mother answered. Fallon told her, “I’m getting out, I’m coming home.”
When she asked what he meant, his answer was chillingly simple: “Turn on the news.”
The call ended. It was the last time the family heard from him.
Kayla Fallon Smith turned grief into mission
Smith was eight when her father died. Now 33, she told Fox, the pain has never simply disappeared with the passage of time.
“Those words haunt me a little bit,” she said. “Every year, grief is different. It doesn't go away. It's a myth when people say that time heals all wounds, it doesn't.”
Over time, Smith found a way to turn that experience of loss into a deeper understanding of what it means to live with trauma.
She opened up about becoming a licensed mental health counselor and, in 2019, founding a nonprofit that provides free mental health counseling and equine-assisted therapy to military personnel, veterans, first responders and their families.
In helping others navigate trauma, Smith has found a way to give purpose to the pain she has carried since losing her father.
