Beauty for Ashes

Like everyone else in the Western World, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the planes crashed into the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001.  I was working at NBPower, but for some reason had run from the office to home just before 10:00 am - probably to get something for Mrs. Curren.  I don't really remember.  I do remember walking into her bedroom just as the second plane flew into the South Tower.  It didn't occur to me for one second that what I was seeing was real.  I recall saying to Mrs. C, "What movie are you watching?"  It quickly became evident that it wasn't a movie and I, along with rest of the country and the continent, spent the next several days watching New York City in news coverage on all the major networks.

There are pictures and scenes that are indelibly etched on our collective consciousness. The initial impacts and explosions as the planes hit the WTC towers; Father Mychal Judge's lifeless body being carried from the wreckage; the terrible pictures of people jumping from the burning buildings; the billows of ashy smoke from the falling towers racing down streets and sidewalks, swallowing everything and everyone in their path; abandoned firetrucks with windows blown out; people wandering dazedly about; the agonizing tears of family members who had loved ones in the Towers. Everyone in North America who was alive on September 11, 2001 will remember it for the rest of their lives.

During the news saturation in the aftermath of 9/11, it was hard to see and hear all the devastation.  You began to think that you would hear nothing good from New York City.  On Friday, September 14th  I was watching the news after work and watched the following news story.

Harry and Rose were an older couple living in the heart of NYC.  September 11, 2001 was the New York Mayoral election day, and Harry and Rose went out to cast their votes.  Shortly after they voted, the pandemonium that was 9/11 unfolded.  Harry and Rose were caught in the sea of people surging away from the WTC centers and were separated.  Rose made her way to a Red Cross Shelter and stayed there, hoping that Harry would turn up. Harry wandered the streets on his own, looking for Rose with no success.  As the day went on, Harry realized that he would need his heart medication and so he returned to the apartment where he and Rose lived.  The apartment was in a part of the city that had been deemed unliveable by the authorities and had been evacuated earlier in the day.  There was no power, heat, lights or phone service in the building.  In spite of the fact that the building had been deserted, Harry decided to stay put.  He had some food and water, his medicine, and it was hard to breathe out in the streets of NYC.  Harry and Rose spent the next three nights apart, each not knowing if the the other was alive.

Harry and Rose's son, Sam, lived in another part of the country.  Like the rest of the world he watched the events of 9/11 with horror, panic and fear, not knowing if his parents had survived.  He had spoken to them on the phone the previous day and knew that they were planning to go out and vote.  His worst fear was that his Mother and Father had been caught in the melee and killed; because of the disruption in the NYC phone system, Sam had no way of knowing anything about his parent's condition, if they were hurt or even dead.

Sam immediately began trying to track down his parents.  After a period of time, phone numbers were released for various rescue agencies that had shelters for people displaced from their homes. After many phone calls, Sam found the Red Cross Shelter where his mother had taken refuge.  Mother and Son spoke on the phone, each relieved to hear the other's voice, but both heavy hearted at the unknown whereabouts of their Husband and Father.  After speaking with his mother, Sam spoke with a Red Cross worker at the shelter and gave him his parent's address.  The Red Cross worked said that he would  make sure the information was given to rescue personnel who were canvassing neighbourhoods affected by the events of Tuesday, the 11th.

It was the afteroon of Friday, September 14th when rescue workers found Harry in his cold, dark apartment.  He was quite well, considering the circumstances, but was so very worried about Rose.  The rescue workers helped Harry from the apartment building, checked him out in an EMT truck and took him to the Red Cross Shelter where Rose was.

The news crew showed the reunion live.  It was one of the most beautiful, joyous, heart-wrenching, tear-jerking things I have ever seen in my life.  Two understandably worse for the wear elderly sweethearts, with their arms wrapped around each other, crying.  Harry kept repeating "Rosie, Rosie, Rosie!!", and Rose kept kissing Harry.  The rescue personnel, shelter workers, news crew applauded, cheered and cried.  You could hear the camera operator sobbing in the background.  I still cry every time I think about it - I would be lying if I told you that I didn't have tears in my eyes right now while I'm typing this.

So when I think about September 11, 2001, I do think about the horror, devestation and seeming senselessness of the situation.  But I also remember Harry and Rose and the little tiny, tiny pinprick of light that their story brought to a very, very dark and bleak landscape.  It reminds me of the verses in Isaiah 61 that says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor;  He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; wo comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion,to give them beauty for ashes,the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;….”