Never Forget

I plan to read as many entries as I can from New York Times' Portraits of Grief and remember those who lost their lives twelve years ago.

Then I'll write letters to our service members who are putting their lives on the line for us today and every day.

It's the least I can do.

Three hundred forty three

Program from Tribute

 Last night, we attended a 9/11 tribute at a local fire station. It's something we've done before. We hope they decide to continue it each year. It's one way for the kids to understand what happened and how we were all so affected and touched. The kids were so little when 9/11 occurred they don't remember anything. Rose hadn't been born yet.

But they were old enough to remember their uncle showing them around Ground Zero when we were in New York last summer. Of standing where he stood when the things were happening. Of seeing where he was evacuating people. Of reading the various memorials for those first responders who lost their lives.

The tribute opened with a choir of bells playing while a slide show was shown choreographed to the music. An invocation was read then a recap of the day eleven years ago.

Next came the reading of the names. All 343 names of the NYFD firefighters who died on 9/11 were read.

 A luminary for each firefighter lost

This year they added the names of those on the flight crews of the four aircraft because one of the people who work for the fire station used to work for the airlines. Hubby and I appreciated this because we both worked for United. We also worked on the types of aircraft lost that day, the 767 and the 757. Hubby was in airframes. I was engines/propulsion.

Following the names, a presentation was made by a motorcycle group—a donation to the firefighter's widows and orphans fund and a granite statue that is being designed to mark 9/11. Then bagpipes played Amazing Grace. A haunting tune while the luminaries lit up the darkness.

We walked through the luminaries and read the names on some of them.

So much light. So much life snuffed out that Tuesday morning eleven years ago.

Never Forget

Always remember them. Some of the Portraits in Grief profiles have been updated since they were published by the NY Times in 2001. Worth a read, if only to remind ourselves of those who lost their lives on 9/11.

And here's a montage of pictures from that day. Some are graphic and may be hard to take, but it's what happened and shouldn't be forgotten.

Never Forget

September 11, 2001. Just the date brings back memories. The images and details are so clear, even after ten years. I remember from the phone calls I made to friends I worried were there to the salty taste of my tears. But of all the moments that day, these had the biggest impact on me.

• Waking up to the newscaster on the radio saying a plane hit the World Trade Center and turning on the television downstairs to see smoke coming from the North Tower.

• Watching the second plane hit the South Tower. I felt as if I'd been physically punched in the stomach.

• The collapse of the Towers. Again, it physically hurt.

• Finding out United Airlines planes, ones that I'd worked on while employed there, were involved.

• The phone call from my brother-in-law's roommate that afternoon. She was in tears asking if we'd heard from him because no one had all day and he'd been down in that area. She asked if I could get in touch with their middle brother. So I did.

• The phone call that arrived late that night, around eleven or midnight west coast time, from my brother-in-law saying he wasn't missing. He'd been down there all day doing what he could, but was finally getting out of there.

Some families never got to experience the moment of relief when the call arrived. But it still didn't erase the pain and the heartache of so many lives taken much too soon and the attack against our country.

As I was driving this past Friday, I heard a song on the radio. The tears flowed then and once again when I found the music video on YouTube.



One of the things I'll remember most about my trip to New York in June was the visit to Ground Zero with my brother-in-law, who became a 9-11 responder by chance. He worked in Central Park as a Mounted Park Ranger, but that September morning he happened to be near Battery Park in a training class. They were pulled out and put to work, helping with evacuations and whatever else needed to be done.

He took us through that day. Well, his day. From where he stood when the second plane hit to where he was when the Twin Towers came down to what happened afterward.

The kids were too young in 2001 to remember anything. Mackenna had been three at the time. Finn one. Rose wouldn't be born for another year and half.

But the three knew what 9/11 was. We've attended Memorial Services at a local fire station. They also knew for a very long and difficult time that day their uncle had been missing. But they hadn't heard what had happened from someone who had been there. And whose 9/11 story didn't end that day, but continued through the clean-up.

At one point during our visit, we sat near the Winter Garden and listened to how he helped evacuate people from the complex. The kids asked questions, ones that showed their youth, innocence and pure heart. Questions I worried might upset my brother-in-law. But if they did, he never mentioned it.

September 11, 2001...Never forget.

Always Remember

This commercial only aired once after 9/11. I thought it was fitting for today.



I also wanted to post the link I usually post each year. It's the New York Times portraits of grief that were published in the paper following 9/11. If you have some time today, go read a few to remember those who lost their lives and pray for the loved ones they left behind.

Never Forget...

Remember those who lost their lives...

Remember those who gave their lives...

And remember how it felt when America was truly a United States and one nation under God.

September 11th

If you get a chance, go to the NYT's Portraits of Grief website and read some of the profiles of people who lost their lives seven years ago today. The biggest mistake we can make as a country is not to remember what happened in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. My prayers are with the victims' families and friends on this anniversary of that horrific day.