I was in work when my boss came to my office and told me to put on the news station on my radio. WBZ was reporting on the plane that hit the tower in New York. When they reported a second plane hit, I didn’t want to be alone in my office, so I went into the main office with my co-workers. None of us spoke. There were no words to explain what we were feeling, because honestly, speaking for myself, I didn’t know what I was feeling other than shock.
One of my coworkers didn’t live far from the office and she went home to get a portable TV. She put in on top of a filing cabinet and we watched in horror. My husband was a the VA for an appointment with his psychologist. He called me to tell me what was going on there. Once I heard his voice, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else he said, other than he was OK and was heading home.
Most of the day, and days afterwards, our eyes were glued to the news. I started to focus on the other shocking thing of that horrible day. The fact that so many responded out of love to what was done out of hate. September 11, 2001 proved that there are more people doing things out of what is good within them than they choose to do harm. God was very active on 9/11 but most people were wondering where He was.
So new to the job, he had not yet received equipment with identification on it. Before going into the towers, Connolly wrote his name on duct tape and put it on the front of his new helmet.
As Connolly and his brother approached the North Tower, it collapsed, trapping them under debris.
“This is a picture of my brother Brian and myself, obviously quite emotional,” Connolly said as he handled the precious photo. “My first day. We never thought — the building came down pretty much around us, he was only about four to five feet from me, but we were both buried alive. It was crazy.”
His first day as a firefighter was on 9/11. It’s a day he says he will never forget.
God was within them.
‘Ordinary people turned into extraordinary human beings’ | New York City firefighters remember 9/11
Murphy and D’Avolio joined first responders in the search for survivors and their comrades, firefighters who had responded to the initial call. For hours, Murphy had no idea whether his brother, a fellow firefighter, was alive.
“All we did was search,” D’Avolio shared, estimating he was only home four times over the next 30 days. “As firemen, we have the ability to put ourselves in a state of mind. We just continue to drive forward. We put our emotion on a shelf.”
11Alive news
Some may say they were “just doing their jobs,” as if their heroism could be dismissed. Perhaps that is easier than thinking about the bravery they had compared to how some selfish people feel about what they would have done. I often wonder how they explain the actions of the 40 passengers and crew on Flight 93. How do they explain the fact they fought back, knowing they would probably die? These were average people but knowing about the other planes, they decided to make sure that plane was not used as a weapon of mass destruction.
Since 2001, a great deal of attention has been paid to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. But less so for Flight 93. The U.S. Capitol was the likely target of where hijackers had planned to crash the plane. Instead, passengers and crew forced the plane down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania — now an important touchstone site in the community. William Brangham reports.
PBS
Whenever something is done out of hatred, more respond out of love and that is how we know God was there. We will never know everything else He tried to do that day to prevent it. We only know what happened when people responded out of the goodness that was within their souls.
PTSD feeds off of all the negative memories survivors hold onto. Power is taken away from it when we allow the other memories to become stronger. The memories of people who came to help us. The memories of people who showed us compassion and kindness. The ones who risked their own lives to help us. Above all, the people who stood by us while we were recovering and helped us in anyway they were able to.
Remember, it’s your life…get in and drive it!
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
