story498.xml
Title
story498.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-05-02
911DA Story: Story
My sister who lives with us was preparing to go on an all day outing with a friend. The friend is the one who alerted us to what was happening in New York. We knew my sister's daughter, Christine Snyder, had been in New York and Washington D.C. on a business trip for Outdoor Circle, Honolulu, Hawaii. She was due to fly home that day. My sister immediately called Christine's cell phone number but
there was no answer. She left a message to call us soon as she could. This was 9:30 AM CST.
Convinced that Christine would be leaving at noon from Newark and was alright, my sister went on her way. I worried about it all day and of course, continued to watch things on the news. I kept getting calls from family members asking if we had heard from Christine. All day long the phone rang.
Around 5 PM I got a call from my nephew (Christine''s brother)in Hawaii saying that Christine had taken an earlier flight and had been on Flight 93. I refused to believe it, asking who told him and how did he know. We hung up and I sat there trying to digest what he said. 20 minutes later I called Hawaii and asked the same questions, this time talking to my other nephew. He, of course, told me the same thing...it had been confirmed by United Airlines.
My husband refused to believe it so we put in a call to United ourselves to verify it. You give the information and then wait for them to call you back. Before they called us back, the counselor assigned to our family by United called for my sister. So we talked to him about it...a wonderful caring young man named Joe Hall, and a sweet lady named Sue Kment.
I had the unpleasant task of calling another sister and a niece in CA, my son in MN and daughter here in WI. We are a close family and this news hit us all very hard. I also had the nerve-wracking task of waiting until my sister came home to break that awful news to her. She did not arrive home until 11 PM. That had to be the longest day of my life.
I cannot end this story without telling how wonderful United Airlines treated our whole family. The flew us all to Hawaii first class, all 9 of us who attended the Celebration of Christine's Life. United provided rental cars, all the meals and expenses for us.
Yet to this day, the whole horrendous day does not seem real
and it seems impossible that Christine is gone.
there was no answer. She left a message to call us soon as she could. This was 9:30 AM CST.
Convinced that Christine would be leaving at noon from Newark and was alright, my sister went on her way. I worried about it all day and of course, continued to watch things on the news. I kept getting calls from family members asking if we had heard from Christine. All day long the phone rang.
Around 5 PM I got a call from my nephew (Christine''s brother)in Hawaii saying that Christine had taken an earlier flight and had been on Flight 93. I refused to believe it, asking who told him and how did he know. We hung up and I sat there trying to digest what he said. 20 minutes later I called Hawaii and asked the same questions, this time talking to my other nephew. He, of course, told me the same thing...it had been confirmed by United Airlines.
My husband refused to believe it so we put in a call to United ourselves to verify it. You give the information and then wait for them to call you back. Before they called us back, the counselor assigned to our family by United called for my sister. So we talked to him about it...a wonderful caring young man named Joe Hall, and a sweet lady named Sue Kment.
I had the unpleasant task of calling another sister and a niece in CA, my son in MN and daughter here in WI. We are a close family and this news hit us all very hard. I also had the nerve-wracking task of waiting until my sister came home to break that awful news to her. She did not arrive home until 11 PM. That had to be the longest day of my life.
I cannot end this story without telling how wonderful United Airlines treated our whole family. The flew us all to Hawaii first class, all 9 of us who attended the Celebration of Christine's Life. United provided rental cars, all the meals and expenses for us.
Yet to this day, the whole horrendous day does not seem real
and it seems impossible that Christine is gone.
Collection
Citation
“story498.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/13061.