![]() ![]() The general public's attention and focus changed almost instantly. It was something that will never leave me.Īs an immigrant, I will always recount feelings and memories, before 9/11 and after. I'll never forget how both my parents were stuck to the television with the news on, especially during a time where that wasn't the norm. He reluctantly didn't go into work that one day. Luckily, my father came home minutes after we turned on the television. I felt my mother's anxieties as we didn't know the status of my father's whereabouts. My father worked in NYC and in the district by the Twin Towers. I didn't fully comprehend it but I was also fearful for what I could understand. It was very confusing for me at the time. Later, I found out that my teacher's brother lost his life in the attack. All we knew at the moment was that NYC was being attacked. All the students were sent home early due to the fear-inducing element of the attack. She suddenly had a very shocked demeanor and immediately halted whatever the class was doing. During our grade school lesson, the teacher was interrupted by the acting principal. I recall being about eight or nine years old. hoping the next day would not bring the same level of death, destruction, and uncertainty. I remember trying to find something to watch on television and just giving up and going to bed. I wondered if the artists I had met that one time were working that day. I remember thinking about an art project I had just conducted only three months prior in one of the towers-on one of the floors that was directly hit. I remember trying to help her figure out how she would get back north via train or car. I had been on an airplane just a few days prior visiting my grandparents in Florida, and my sister was now stuck in Florida and unable to fly back to Philadelphia for medical school. I remember going home and calling my parents, filling the bathtub with water in case we lost power, and taking a long walk in Riverside Park heading south until I realized that was not the smartest idea. On the 15th floor people gathered to see the billowing smoke. There was a quiet in the uptown part of the city. I think of my buddy Billy, and all the other innocent victims of that day, and then I go on with my life. And while I am not much for public commemoration of what happened that day, every year, on 9/11, I go down to Ground Zero at night, when the crowds are gone, the sky is dark and the memorial twin beams of light are shining brightly in the night sky. While I have lost many friends and colleagues to 9/11 related illnesses, I am still pretty healthy. ![]() When I finally got a day off, I learned that Bill Meehan, my best friend since elementary school, who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, had been killed on 9/11.Īs for me, I have been pretty lucky in the aftermath of 9/11. We worked at Ground Zero almost every day for months. We all then went home to catch a few hours of sleep, only to return the next morning to continue the work of rescue and recovery. Not knowing this as the sun set on 9/11, we all sang ‘Happy Birthday' to Evelyn on the empty West Side highway. Ultimately, they found his remains on St. He died in the line of duty when the towers collapsed. Timmy Roy, had been in court that day and had run to the towers to help out. It wasn't until the next day that I learned that one of my sergeants, Sgt. As the sun was setting that day, we regrouped all of my officers on the West Side Highway and took a head count to be sure that we had everyone accounted for. We had a cake for her back in the office that we never got to eat. September 11, 2001, was the 30th birthday of one of my staff officers, Evelyn Urena. I took them home and went back to what soon became known as Ground Zero. When she saw me, she was shocked at all of the debris and dust that covered us and our car. #9 11 MEMORY PICTURES DRIVER#My driver and I immediately went across town to meet her and transport her to safety. She called me to see if I had survived the collapse and told me where she was. As there was no public transportation available that day, she was walking home to Riverdale with a friend. At the time, my daughter Caroline (CC'08) was a student at Loyola High School on East 83rd Street. ![]()
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