Freddye Carter loves her little shitzu -- a gift from her dad after 9/11 when she lost her mother, Angelene Carter, a civilian army employee.

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Freddye was a senior at Suitland High School that day. Her sister in Belgium was actually on the phone with her mother.

“She said then the phone started going really staticy -- she could hear my mother yelling out her name, and then the phone went dead,” Freddye says.

And 10 years later, it still hurts.

The teenager who dreamed of a singing career had to grow up fast:

She took on a lot of responsibility because, after her mother was killed, she became the woman of the house. She says she was holding everything inside and was trying to be strong for her father.

She clung to her faith, got a job and put her college degree on hold.

“My mom told me if she was to die she wouldn't want anyone to dwell over her but I can't help it,” she says. “It's like everywhere--911 is everywhere.”

The memories are indeed everywhere. Her mother’s pearls, the smell of Chanel perfume, the metal bracelet with Angelene's name on it and the case filled with memorabilia -- including the watch her mother was wearing that day at the Pentagon.

But Freddye is looking past the past now -- pursuing an online computer science degree, and knowing her mother would be proud of her:

“I'm gonna be okay. I guarantee I'm gonna be okay,” she says.