Do You Remember?

I write Tuesday’s blog on Monday. This week, I am going to share something a bit different – a video. It’s around 44 minutes long and it is a video that is very personal to me.  I hope each one of you will make the time to watch. More about that in a moment. First, let me set the scene.

On this day twenty-three years ago, people were going about their normal routines. It was a Tuesday. The Monday back-to-work hump was over, and people were trying to get the kids to school before they were all late. 

The early birds were already at their prospective offices preparing for meetings or their day ahead. As per usual, co-workers gathered in the breakroom grabbing a morning coffee.  Some were discussing what they watched on TV the night before. The non-morning people only wanted their coffee and left the minute their mugs were full.

Back at their desk, they begin looking over the day’s tasks. There is noise. They cock their head. Is that a plane? It sounds close. That’s odd, planes usually do not fly that close to their building. But this one is close enough for the windows to rattle. Some look outside the very large windows of where they work and try to determine what’s going on. Others look at their watches or phones – 8:14 a.m. EST. Then, their world changes forever. 

Four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorists attack the U.S. Two planes flew into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. A third plane flies into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and the fourth plane crashes in a field in Pennsylvania because the passengers fought back.

A total of 2,996 people lost their lives that day. Firefighters and First Responders worked around the clock trying to remove bodies from the rubble, praying to find survivors. I remember vividly what I was doing that morning. Do you?

I was like those folks at the World Trade Center. Going about my business, drinking coffee, checking emails, getting ready for a team meeting. It wasn’t until later that afternoon that my mother called to tell me that my first cousin, Joe Lott, had a meeting in the North Tower that day and his wife was waiting to find out if he was okay.

Let me tell you a bit about my cousin. He was my first hero. He spent time with us during the summer when he was a child. My only brother, Terry, loved him like a brother. The feeling was mutual. In turn, he is like a brother to me and my sister too, so to hear that he had been in the attack was devastating. 

Thankfully, his story has a happy ending. He was finally able to reach his wife to let her know he was okay. He had survived but none of his co-workers had. 

This is a video link from 2020 where he shared his experience of that day in detail. He has been in the Rotary Club for years and shared his experiences with the Rotary Club of Arlington, VA. Everyone was on lockdown at the time, so they were meeting via video.

Even though I had heard his story, it was chilling to hear it in detail. There are so many people like Joe who carry this tragic experience. So many children lost a parent that day. So many lost someone that day. We all lost something that day. 

For a moment in time, we all banded together, regardless of race, religion, or politics. We were kinder to one another. People shared their connection to the attacks. We were not Republican or Democrat, white or black, Baptist, or Catholic; we were only American brothers and sisters grieving together.  

Is a tragic event the only thing that seems to awaken us to love one another? It’s for sure a world-wide pandemic didn’t. May God be with us.

Please join me in watching my cousin, Joe Lott, share his experience. Each year on September 11, he takes the day off from his many projects, and honors his fellow co-workers who lost their lives. As his family, we remind him of how grateful we are that he loved art ties.

I now invite you to watch:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJbCUOcOwlw 

May we never forget.