Thursday, September 12, 2013

People In Your Neighborhood: 9/11



" september 11 was a beautiful, beautiful day. as everyone will always remember I know. "

" families often have a map in their minds of where their loved ones are in the world...you know if somebody in your family is working in a place that has become a center of a calamity that is now unfolding,  in your mind, you are trying to place your loved one. where are they in relationship to this terrible series of events that's unfolding. "






Leaving this space for the horror, the grief, the suffering, the heroism, the devotion, the connectivity, the humanity, the love, the long road ahead. I remember 9/11. 


Boatlift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience  " I tell my children, never go through life saying you should have. If you want to do something, you do it. "


Phone Calls of 9/11 ( all quotes are from this video ) " It's important to let people know what families of 9/11 have been experiencing, what we are going through, what we have gone through. We still have those memories that we don't want anybody to ever forget " Jill Gartenberg, lost husband Jim, 35 years old in the North Tower.




Sometimes I think what it would feel like to know that one of my children was in a tower, and to look at the TV, and to watch a plane fly into the building that my child was in. I am flooded with abject terror, sense of unreality, horror, helplessness. My respect and awe and compassion for those affected by 9/11 feels as boundless as love.



" Stephen was with us for 33 years. And we have a choice. We can either say, we are so mad that he is not here. Or we can say, we had him, for 33 years. And we have a feast to return to. The feast of memories "- Anne Mulderry, mother of Stephen, killed in 9/11. 


" I just want to say how much I love you. And ah,  I will call you when I'm safe. OK Mom? Bye. " Stephen



" I feel so bad that we can't do more. You don't know. " 911 operator



" We're young men- We're not ready to die! " Kevin Cosgrove, who died in the collapse of tower one, as he was speaking to the 911 operator. His call was used in the trial of one of the 9-11 terrorists to illustrate human suffering.  



"He left a story behind. My kids have it, their kids will have it. And I just feel that it's to honor his memory and the person that he was. "-wife of Orio Palmer, fire captain who made it to the point of impact before dying in the tower collapse



Anne Mulderry, on hearing that her son Stephen was dead " And a sound came out of me that I'd never heard in my life..it was just an animal sound. And when I heard that sound for the first time in my life- that howl- I knew it was universal, and that, you know, my family and I had joined, you know, all the losses of all the ages. "

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