For nine months after 9/11, the Fortune Small Business Magazine followed three Wall Street-area small business entrepreneurs. One of them was a Naduri liquor store-owner... Peter Muscat, who is still fighting for financial survival.

Profile in Courage: A Year After September 11

"I am going to stay," Peter Muscat said firmly in early October 2001. Indeed, his past suggests that he could weather any crisis. Thirty-two years ago, the 58-year-old Nadur native moved to New York and began working at Maiden Lane Wine & Liquor as a part-time clerk. He took over the store in 1997; since then, revenues had increased 40%.

But after a few minutes of uneasy banter, Muscat let another side of his personality show. Overcome by emotion, he wiped his eyes and walked to the back of his store for a couple of minutes in an effort to regain his composure. When he returned, he admitted that he couldn't be blindly positive. His business had been deci-mated. "About 50% of my business came from the World Trade Center and the buildings around it," he said. "The other half is from residents. Both groups are gone now." At the end of September, he had to lay off one of his two employees.

Muscat had spent years learning how to run a small business, but now he had to master a new set of skills: applying for loans and grants. Navigating the bureaucratic maze left him frustrated, and after a couple of months he stopped filling out loan applications. "My wife goes to the meetings, but nothing is happening," he said. From that point, Muscat rarely left his store.

In late November, Muscat wrote a letter to local and federal politicians, pleading for help. Maiden Lane's sales were off 45%, but Muscat was more discouraged by the fact that he'd been robbed four times. "I have worked down here for 30 years and haven't seen such brazen crime as I've experienced in the past ten weeks," he wrote.

Business stayed slow throughout Christmas and the early part of 2002, and Muscat's mood remained suitably dour. But by summer he had started seeing a few promising signs. The neighborhood had cleaned up, and new residents had begun moving in. And Muscat said that his store was beginning to see a little bit more action.

Still, even Muscat's brighter moments are shaded with loss and frustration. He plans to start applying for grants again this summer, but he dreads the "running around." He hopes for an uptick in business but worries that a full rebound is unlikely. "We are surviving," he says. "That's it."

Following 9/11 Muscat’s revenue went down by 35%.