email322.xml

email322.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-19

Dear Paul and Ali,

Man proposes, God disposes.

I'm so very sorry that we were not able to make our trip to England and
accept your
generous hospitality. What a difference a week makes!

It is very hard around here right now. You have the little life
inconveniences, such as phones
that work on and off, both mobile and at home, and the Internet at my
office is down now
for the past week. The DSL phone line it ran on ran through the World
Trade Center. TV only
works if you have cable (which we do, but many limited income people do
not), the
broadcast antenna was on the top of the WTC. Many roads are still
closed, and it's scary to
see troops on some streets, although I know they're there for
protection.

It's the big things that matter, though. I don't know anyone who hasn't
lost someone they
knew at the WTC. My local firehouse lost 19 men. One of my father's best
friend's son (also a fireman) was lost, he had just had a son 2 weeks
ago.

My newspaper this week has story after story of people in my community
who were lost.
One woman's memorial service was held on the same week as her wedding was
planned to
take place.

But, thank God, no one in the immediate family was killed or injured. We
count our blessings, you can be sure of that.

You can still see "Ground Zero" smoking every day when I drive home.
What's really
frightening is that I just developed a roll of film yesterday of a day
trip to the city Toni and I
took just 2 weeks ago. It was a place in the city that she had never
been to. It was the
observation deck of the WTC. We got the pictures back today, of us
standing in a place
that's not there anymore.

As to England, we got all our money back, which helps. The airlines
couldn't charge us for
tickets we couldn't use, and the folks in the UK who we had booked tours
with (Paris,
Stonehenge) were very understanding and gave us full refunds. Everyone
has been great.

I hope you and Ali enjoyed your holiday in Greece. I spoke to your Mom
and Dad and asked
them to forward my regrets to you two. I'm writing this at work but
going to e-mail this
from home, since as I explained, our Internet at work is down. But I
hope to talk to you soon, one way or another.

We're going to try for England again in the Spring, depending on what's
happening in the
world. I haven't given up yet! It's now become a quest, a way of proving
those @#!*#$%
can't control our lives. We're down, but not out.

Take care, and again, thanks for your offer of hospitality. We hope to
take you up on it
again if the world doesn't get in the way.

Best wishes to you both,
Jack

Sent 9/24/01

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