What If...

We spoke recently with the parents of Gavhar Kamoriddinova, a 26-year-old Uzbek woman who was among the nearly 3,000 people who died in the 9/11 attacks.

Her father, Muhammad, talked of the wrenching pain as his heart shrinks every year with the approach of September 11. "It's endless grief," he told our Uzbek Service. "Every anniversary, I recall the nightmare over and over. Hundreds of thoughts whirl in my head: What if she'd been somewhere else, instead of at the World Trade Center that day -- anywhere but those towers?"

"I see her image everywhere -- her voice rings in my ears," said her mother, Farida.

Their words are a reminder that alongside commemorations in the United States, parents like Gavhar's -- as well as brothers and sisters and indeed children -- in more than 90 countries around the world are mourning loved ones who died at the hands of the 9/11 attackers.

-- Andy Heil