Project 2996: Remembering the lost of 9/11

I remember wondering what is going to happen next, as in that day, and into the next week.

It’s astonishing that it hasn’t happened again – but I guess that’s “Bush’s fault” as well.

We owe a debt of gratitude to President Bush and our military

for that ‘fault’.

Chainsaw56 on September 11, 2009 at 9:30 AM

So true. May the victims and may our brave soldiers who have died since keeping us safe all rest in peace.

I will never forget them.

I will always love and admire President Bush for the 7 years since. No one is perfect, but he laid it all on the line to keep this country safe, no matter what the personal or political cost to him.

Unlike most politicians he meant what he said and he was steadfast in it. He said he would never forget and he didn’t.

“I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!“

Elisa on September 11, 2009 at 10:04 AM

Cesar R. Garcia was happily married to Celeste, had a godson, and was beloved by everyone he worked with, many who considered him like family, remembered still for being a reliable friend at work and an upbeat effective coordinator of efforts.

maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 9:45 AM

thank you for that

Elisa on September 11, 2009 at 10:06 AM

My friend’s husband, Bobby, was fifth in command of the Port Authority police. He could have retired the year before, but wanted to work till his daughter graduated college. He was a good family man and always made people laugh.

He was in Jersey City when the planes hit and he went over to NYC to go into the buildings and to help the people escape. They have a recording of his last words into his radio as the building fell on him and the others, “mayday, mayday.”

Before my friend was informed of this, for over a week they weren’t sure what happened to him. There was hope he was still alive. There were rumors at the Port Authority that some may be trapped in another building that had food and pockets of air and that Bobby was seen by someone in that building that day.

I can still hear her son talking on the phone with the dentist, asking for dental records.

I remember my friend’s eyes every time the phone would ring in her kitchen, full of hope and terror at the same time. Wondering if it was any news, good or bad. It was like Chinese water torture. Drip, drip, drip. Until word came over a week later that he didn’t make it. A year and a half later they found a couple pieces of this hero to bury. A month after 9/11 all we had on the altar at his memorial was a uniform.

Some never recovered any parts of their loved ones. They were literally pulverized. Vanished into thin air. And I will not disgust everyone with the horrors that those wonderful and courageous people who worked the site in the coming months saw and smelled.

My brother-in-law lives in the town in NJ who lost the most people that day. 36 or 38. There were many children around here who’s mother or father did not come home that night. But in that town there were 2 families where both parents did not ever come home again.

I remember for several years in my daily travels making the sign of the cross when I passed my friend’s house and a house nearby that also lost a father.

I remember for a couple hours that clear, crisp and beautiful morning we were worried for 2 of my brothers-in-law. One worked nearby and often was in those buildings and another had a meeting there that morning. One of them walked down all those stairs years earlier in the first attack in 1993, that went forgotten, allowing the buildings to be hit again. Luckily neither brother was there on 9/11. Like so many here, we were relieved.

I will always remember when they hit the Pentagon, our government, our country. It was personal to all of us. And I will always remember those brave souls on Flight 93 who’s spirit inspired all of us in the weeks that followed.

I will never forget the next day in my back yard looking at something orangish in the distant sky and wondering what it was. Then I realized. I didn’t even know I could see something like that because I live an hour away.

I will never forget and I know many of you and many around the country will never forget. I just cannot understand those who have. And it makes me even more angry at this administration and those who want to “fundamentally change this country.”

“Eternal rest grant on to them, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls, and all the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”

Elisa on September 11, 2009 at 10:54 AM