My (late) father lost a friend on that horrible day. My father was a constructive executive who had renovated the offices of a very prestigious Wall Street law firm and got to know the buildings operations manager. On 9/11 the man John Ernst Eichler had been in the Windows On The World Restaurant having a meeting with his broker about setting up a scholarship for inner city kids. When the plane hit both men were trapped and perished. My youngest brother was a sous chef in NYC at the time and was teaching a class of developmentally challenged adults the basics of banquet preparation as part of a program run by The Port Authority and the New York State Dept. of Education. Many of his students later were given jobs working in The Sky Box Cafe in the South Tower. The woman who ran the program and was the manager liked my brother and offered him the job of managing the cafe but he had a better paying job at the time. On 9/11 at least 12 of his students were all killed when the plane hit the Tower. My brother says sometimes at night, in his dreams he see’s their faces, they call to him for help but he can’t do anything for them.
My other younger brother was in down town Jersey City at the building department that morning around 9am when someone ran into the building and yelled “The Trade Centers on fire!’’. He ran out of the building and looked east just as the second plane hit and watched the whole thing go down. He even saw people jumping. He said “It looked like wax dripping from a candle’’. He too suffers nightmares sometimes because of what he saw.And to round out this quartet of 9/11 horror 9/11 is my oldest brothers birthday.
Thanks for sharing. What Pearl Harbor is to the greatest generation, 9/11 is to the Baby Boomer generation. 9/11 is the worst day of my life — even worse than the death of my parents, who at 90+ were supposed to die. I still weep when I see photos and videos of 9/11. For those of us who lived in NYC and suburbia on that horrible day, we all know someone who perished. I remember going to the Metro North train station that evening to aid those coming back from Ground Zero, and seeing the numb faces covered in soot and dust, soaked in sweat, tears, and blood; and I recall the cars at the train station in the following days that no one claimed. I still have flashbacks even though I was safe and comfy fifty miles from ground zero. I can only imagine the pain and suffering of those who perished and their families who suffered. I WILL NEVER FORGET!!!