The healing process has been slow for a Queens family that NY1 has followed for years after the September 11th terror attacks. NY1's Ruschell Boone has more on why the pain is not as great as it once was and filed the following report.

After years of grieving, Al and Maureen Santora are learning how to live and laugh again. And family time has become extremely important since the death of their son.

Christopher Santora was a firefighter with Engine 54 when he was killed on 9/11. His death devastated the entire family.

"The first few years were very difficult without a doubt," says Al Santora.

For years, NY1 followed the Santoras as they mourned, remembered and honored the 23-year-old who had only been on the job a few months when he was killed. Their tears don't flow as much as they used to, but their pain is still very raw.

"I don't think people who have not experienced a loss like ours. I don't think they understand how even after 15 years it's still very, it's a fresh wound," says Jennifer Santora, Christopher's sister.

The firefighter was one of four children and Al and Maureen Santora's only son. He was originally a teacher like his mother then he became a firefighter like his dad. His sisters were teenagers when he died. Now, they have their own families. Their children brought the joy back into the family.

"They saved us. They really saved us all," says Maureen Santora.

The children are like their uncle in many ways: Compassionate and funny, and they love telling the stories their mother and aunts have shared with them.

"There was a garlic shaker like in a pizza place and they would give him like a dollar if he was to take a spoon and eat it and he ate it and his mouth was like on fire and he never got the dollar," says Christopher Santora, one of Christopher's nephews, with a laugh.

They also know what happened to him because they all attended a Jackson Heights school that's named after him. One of Christopher Santora's sisters is a teacher there.

His uniform is in the lobby. His whole presence is in the school.

The family has also kept Christopher Santora's memory alive through books his mother has written and a charity that bears his name.  

On the 15th anniversary of his death family members say they will gather at his old firehouse in Manhattan's Theatre Dsitrict, then listen to the reading of the names at home.