On September 11, Matthew Bocchi’s father died. It was the first of many hard times in his life.
Matthew Bocchi was only in the fourth grade when his father died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. That was the first of many terrible things to happen to the boy from New Jersey.
“In many ways, I like to think of September 12 as the day I changed,” he told Fox News. “I was never going to be the person I was the day before.”
Bocchi’s sadness left him open to sexual abuse by a family member who had been helping him deal with the death of his father. Later, he used drugs to deal with the mental pain he had been through, which led to his arrest.
But in the end, Bocchi turned to his father’s spirit to help him get clean. Now, he talks about his experiences and spreads his lessons of hope, motivation, and being strong.
John Bocchi, Bocchi’s father, drove into New York City every day to work at the World Trade Center on the 105th floor of the north tower.
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At 8:45 a.m. on September 11, a Boeing 676 hit the tower. A few minutes later, the older Bocchi called his wife.
Before the line went dead, Bocchi’s father told his wife, “You’re the love of my life, and I’ll always love you,” which Bocchi’s son told Fox News. He was one of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the terrorist strikes on Sunday, September 11, 2001.
Bocchi still remembers some details, but he said that the days after that were a dream. He remembers that when he was walking home, cars were going by so fast that it was “almost like a crime scene.”
When he walked into the living room, he saw a video of the twin towers being shown again and again.
“I remember seeing an image of someone falling from the building,” Bocchi told Fox News. “That was something I would always remember.”
Bocchi wanted to know more about his father’s death as he got older, but his mother wouldn’t talk about it. The brothers of his dad did not either.
But a married uncle “stepped in and wanted to talk about it with open arms,” Bocchi said.
The boy asked his uncle if he thought his dad was one of the people who jumped off the tower.
“He said, ‘Yes, he did,'” He did that,'” Bocchi told Fox News. He started to look at the photos and videos of people falling down every day after school.
“Watching that footage made me feel like I could share his last moments with him,” Bocchi said.
Eventually, he saw a detailed picture of the bodies of 9/11 victims.
“I felt sick to my stomach right away,” Bocchi said.
After 30 minutes, his uncle came to his house after he called him. When Bocchi’s uncle walked in, he was crying and pointing at the screen of his computer.
“He just took advantage of me in like five minutes,” Bocchi told Fox News.
Bocchi says that the sexual abuse went on for about a year. He said that he trusted his uncle when he said that it was “normal” and that he would be punished if he spoke up.
“I was so ashamed of myself,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t go to anyone, or at least I felt I couldn’t go to anyone.”
Bocchi said that he would always carry it with him.
“What I know now is that he used all the trauma and pain I was going through for his own pleasure,” Bocchi told Fox News. “He used the fact that I was weak against me and hurt me.”
He found out later that his father didn’t jump from the north tower. Instead, it’s thought that he died in a hallway.
When Bocchi started college, he felt like he didn’t fit in.
“People saw me as the kid whose dad died on 9/11,” Bocchi told Fox News. “I felt like that was a label I would always have.”
He began to try harder drugs like cocaine, opiates, and benzos.
“I still remember how I felt,” Bocchi said. “All of this pain that I carry with me, all of this torment, was gone.”
“That was something I was going to chase,” he said.
Throughout college, Bocchi used drugs. Even though he had a job in business after he graduated, he began selling drugs and weed.
Bocchi told Fox News, “Then I was arrested.” “I thought that might be the time when I would say, ‘Okay, enough’s enough.'” Not at all.”
Then, Bocchi felt like he was “stuck.”
“I didn’t know which way to go,” he told her.
Bocchi went outside one day and looked up. He was surprised at how blue it was.
He told Fox News, “It took me right back to the morning of September 11, when my dad died.”
Bocchi asked his dad for help and for a sign. He was leaning against a fence when a fly fell on it and started acting strangely. All it took was that. Bocchi went to rehab right away. He went to rehab for 30 days and then moved into clean life.
“I knew I needed to work on a lot of things,” Bocchi said. “I was working with my sponsor at the time, and I told him what happened with my uncle.”
He chose to tell the cops about it. Bocchi said that his uncle was found guilty of sexual attack in the second degree and given seven years in jail.
After Bocchi got clean in 2015, he said that his job in banking was “miserable.” He started telling his story in high school to encourage young people to talk about their own problems. At the time, it was the only thing he was getting paid for when he spoke.
He quit his job in 2019. The following year, he wrote “Sway,” a book about his life. Now that he is 30, Bocchi talks at high schools, colleges, and other groups full time.
“In this world, not many people are so openly honest about everything they went through,” he said on Fox News. “I feel like if I share these sensitive parts of my story, … I think it makes it easier for people to talk about their own problems.”
