My grandmother Christine sang with the London Opera Company and the singers continued to perform during the devastating "London Blitz" of World War Two with the intention that it was important to keep up the morale of the public. I asked her once how she and her family survived the destruction and carnage. "Well, we just took it as another day," was her reply. Perhaps the Philadelphia area was too far removed from New York to feel the full impact, or, perhaps my clients had my grandmother's mind set and simply took it as another day, but, not one of my three appointments that day canceled. That being so, I worked.
My second client of the evening was obviously shaken up because she worked in World Trade Center South Tower Two. Many people in the Philadelphia area commute to New York for work by train or bus to take advantage of the substantially higher pay rate for most jobs. She had taken the day off to have new carpet installed in her home. All of her co workers died in the terrorist attack. To this day she still sees a therapist as she suffers from a psychological condition known as "Survivors Guilt."
Several months after what has become known simply as "911" I was servicing a piano for a client who worked in a brokerage house in the North Tower One. He told me his story of how he became the lone survivor of about thirty workers at his office. It seems for several years he had tried to quit smoking. He tried all the methods and programs, but inevitability, he always went back to cigarettes. This caused him to have to endure quite a lot of teasing and sarcasm at the hands of his coworkers. He quit smoking again just a few days before the fatal attack. He had a habit of coming to the office several hours before everyone else. When the bulk of the staff showed up each morning at their normal work time he would leave to "take a walk and get a bite of breakfast." This, of course, was his cover for ducking out to grab a smoke. He always walked a few blocks away so no one would discover his secret. As he was lighting up his second cigarette he looked up and saw the airplane crash into Tower One. He suffers no "Survivors Guilt" and never tried to quit smoking again. As he said to me, "Who says smoking is bad for your health?"
On the morning of 911 my son-in-law Rick was in San Diego, California aboard an airplane poised to take off and return him, and two business colleagues, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Suddenly all the passengers were ushered off of the plane with little explanation other than that there was an "air traffic problem." Television monitors in the terminal were already showing the Towers crashing down. Most of the travelers stayed glued to the TV screens, but, Rick and his team moved quickly to get their hotel rooms and rental car back. After watching all the news coverage, and assessing the situation, Rick's trio made the decision to drive cross country to Philadelphia. The three drove in shifts, one driving, one keeping the driver awake, and one sleeping. The group traveled 2800 miles in 45 hours. Their average speed was 62 miles per hour. This was not taking your Grandma for a Sunday drive.
An early writing teacher gave me a piece of advice I have always followed, "Write about what you know." Since I have no direct experience with the tragic events at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon attack, or, the devastating health issues that befell so many of the First Responders, I choose not to address them. If the reader is unfamiliar with these other 911 happenings I hope you will look into them. My omission of them in no way minimizes the importance of those horrific tragedies.
One factor about 911 that took me by surprise was that a large number of the victims left little to no life insurance to provide for their families. The majority of these victims worked in the finical planning industry. Logic would dictate that, before you invested in your first stock or bond, you would make sure your loved ones were provided for. In my day life insurance was the first thing a couple purchased, just after the honeymoon. Harry Gross, a noted Philadelphia C.P.A. and investment counselor was fond of saying, "He who has no life insurance doesn't die...he absconds."
Over time, most important holidays such as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Pearl Harbor Day, Forth Of July, etc. degenerate into days for retailers to have sales, car dealers to trumpet "blow out savings," and the general public to have family parties. This past 911 several retailers advertised 911 sales with tacky sayings like "towering savings." Every 911 I watch news videos of that fatal day including the unedited versions of people jumping out of the tower windows and splattering on the sidewalks. Why the news networks don't air these every year is beyond my understanding. After all, most of us still have the tee shirts and banners with the slogan, "WE WILL NEVER FORGET."
