How a 9/11 Widow, Whose Daughter Was Born After the Attacks, Found Love Again Years Later (Exclusive)

“My heart is and always will be broken, but Joe made it capable of loving again," Dena Smagala tells PEOPLE

Dena Smagala’s New York City firefighter husband, Stanley Smagala Jr., died as a first responder to the World Trade Center during 9/11 — and for nearly two decades, she was convinced she'd never find love again.

Then, one day in 2019, a good friend called and offered to introduce Dena, 54, to someone. "'No thanks, I'm good,' " she recalls saying. “I wasn't into it, even when she told me that the last couple she set up got married."

Now she’s a believer. And on Wednesday, as Dena marks the 23rd anniversary of the terror attacks that changed her family’s life — and the country — she’ll have a new partner by her side at the beach memorial near her Holbrook, Long Island, home.

"He's supportive, he's understanding, he lets me be me," she says of Joe Coreno, 60, whom she married in July 2022. He’s also someone who is willing to let Dena cry as she remembers the worst day of her life.

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"I have never been the same person since 9/11, there's always been a piece of my heart missing," she says, "but Joe will do anything he can to help me feel like a whole person again."

Dena’s 22-year-old daughter, Alexa, born four months after Sep. 11, feels the same way.

As one of the children who arrived into the world after their fathers died in the attacks in 2001 — and whose journey has been documented by PEOPLE for more than 20 years — Alexa grew up with the hurt of not having her dad. But she says that her stepfather fills an important role in their family.

"I don't have a word to describe how much I appreciate him," she says. "It's a lot. When Joe came into the picture, I immediately felt so safe. He was so easy to talk to and very understanding of everything."

Fateful Phone Call

Four years after Coreno’s divorce, a friend told him about Dena in March 2019. Like Dena, he also wasn't interested right away — until that July, when he asked for her number and left her a long voicemail.

She received the call while on a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida and touring nearby colleges with her father and Alexa and her younger daughter Sophia, now 13.

At that moment, Dena, a stay-at-home mom, shrugged off the overture, texting back: "I'm busy."

But days later, she had a change of heart. At the Magic Kingdom wishing well, she threw a penny in and said to herself, with a glimmer of unusual hope, "Maybe this will work out."

On the plane ride home to New York, she texted Coreno again and the pair ended up exchanging messages the entire flight.

“He would ask questions to get to know me, like, 'Do you have five favorite things to do? What do you value the most?' “ Dena says.

Related: The Children of 9/11 Are Honoring the Dads They Never Knew: 'I'm the Last Thing He Left Behind'

Coreno, who works in the auto industry, shared that family was his No. 1 thing — he has a son, 30, and daughter, 22 — which matched Dena's own priorities. "I really could fall for this guy," she thought.

Soon after, they spoke on the phone for the first time (for 187 minutes!) and talked about everything, including her relationship with her late husband and how heartbroken she remained.

She also shared other major twists and turns in her life, like how she’d reconnected with a high school classmate on Facebook and had Sophia with him in February 2011 before, she says, he became verbally abusive and their relationship ended.

At another point in their talk, Dena revealed her diagnosis and yearlong treatment for stage III colon cancer soon after that breakup.

In all her candor, she was “hoping he wouldn't be interested," she tells PEOPLE. But Coreno remained very interested and asked if he could meet her.

Still, she wasn’t so sure.

"I was content being by myself, I thought the rest of my life would be me and the girls and I was fine with that," Dena says. She told Coreno she wasn't ready.

But a month after their first texts, she gave in to her friends' encouragement to at least get together with them: "They were like, 'What's the worst that can happen? It’s a free dinner."

'So Filled with Joy'

She first arrived at Coreno's house in ripped jeans, a dark blue sweatshirt and no makeup. She had a friend on the phone "in case he was crazy," she says now, laughing.

“He came out and I was like, ‘Oh my God he is really cute, if you don’t hear back from me within an hour, call the police, this is where I am.’ ”

As they sat on his sofa together, talking and listening to music, Dena and Coreno felt like they always knew each other and talked easily for hours, she says.

Weeks later, on Sept. 11, 2019, after a trip to the beach 9/11 memorial, she and Coreno stopped by her home. Alexa greeted the pair and remembers that she "almost wanted to cry in a happy way when I saw them together.”

“My mom was just so filled with joy, and she is not one to express her emotions,” she says.

"Because my mom had the biggest smile ear to ear," she continues, "I think we were pretty much on the same page that he was going to be the one for her."

Related: See PEOPLE's Incredible 20-Year Journey Documenting the Children Whose Dads Died on 9/11

Almost three years to the day after exchanging their first messages, the couple married on the beach in Key Largo, Fla., on July 9, 2022, in a small wedding with just close family and friends.

Under a bright blue summer sky, Dena shared how her trust in love was restored and how Coreno “got me to open up and have feelings again.”

"My heart is and always will be broken, but Joe made it capable of loving again," she tells PEOPLE.

Her family also loves Coreno, though Stan’s memory is never far from their hearts: They say they spend hours together sharing stories of the firefighter with Engine 226 in Brooklyn who died when the twin towers collapsed.

Dena, who had long believed she wasn’t one of those widows with a guardian angel looking after her, has also had a change of heart. She now believes Stan and her late father — who, similar to Coreno, had an easygoing nature — put love back in her life.

"It's comforting to feel they are looking out for me," Dena says. "I am so blessed."

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