email409.xml

email409.xml

born-digital

email

unknown

yes

2002-08-19

----- Original Message -----
From: DNathan163@aol.com
To: Dexin_Yuan@tax.state.ny.us
Sent: October 14, 2001 2:14 AM
Subject: Hope


Dear Mr. Yuan:

It is my great hope that you are reading this e-mail. I live in eastern
Tennessee. I traveled to New York City immediately after the WTC blast to
help with the rescue and recovery. My first night there (September 13th)
the rain came down really hard around 2am. I and severeal others 'camped
out' in the lobby of the bombed out Hilton Millinenium. I rested in a
chair in the darkened lobby for several hours while it rained outside.

While seated in the chair, I found your business card amongst the dust and
ash that was between the cushion and arm of the chair. I brought that card
home with me to Tennessee, and have thought daily about trying to email
you, with the hope that you are alive, and were spared on that awful day.
I note from your card that your office was on the 86th floor, so I have
feared the worst, and prayed for the best.

I know that we have never met or known each other, but it is my great hope
that by finding and carrying your card with me during the awful days that
followed, I might somehow find you OK in the weeks that follow.

So, I write this email today, in the great hope that I will have a
wonderful story to tell some day, and that on my next trip to New York, I
can shake your hand, and return your business card to you.

Here's hoping for a speedy and healthy reply.

Best wishes,

Don Nathan
Norris, Tennessee USA





Subj: Re: Hope
Date: 10/15/01 9:19:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Dexin_Yuan@tax.state.ny.us
To: DNathan163@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)




Dear Mr. Nathan:

Thank you very much for your concern for me and especially for your help
with the rescue and recovery in the City. You and many others showed the
best of America at the worst of times.

Yes, I was one of the lucky ones who came out alive. I was at the
concourse level when the first tower was hit and I was at the plaza when
the second one was hit. I ran away with the crowd.

Again, thank you very much.

Best wishes for you and your family.

Sincerely,

Dexin Yuan

______________________________


Subj: Fw: Hope
Date: 10/15/01 2:41:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Satomi@okttravel.com
To: Dnathan163@aol.com
CC: Dexin_Yuan@tax.state.ny.us
Sent from the Internet (Details)



Hi, I am Dexin's wife,my name is Satomi.
After I read your e-mail, I cried again.
I still remember that evening -midnight of 12Sep.It was
rainning so hard and I couldn't sleep at that night.I just
feel so sad and many of people still missing. If, If they are
still alive they must injury and I realy don't want let them
sleep in the rain.....Today when I read your e-mail, I
know that you came to New York and helped us.
I wish next time when you come to New York,Please
call my husband and I wish you can come to my home
we are friends now.
Dexin Yuan's office number is 212-459-7790
home is 516-921-0533.

Sorry, I hope you understand my Engish.I do appreciate what you did to the
NYC and my husband.

Satomi
_____________________________-




Subj: Miracle
Date: 10/17/01 2:05:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: DNathan163
To: Dexin_Yuan@tax.state.ny.us
CC: Satomi@okttravel.com
File: biz card.jpg (9698 bytes) DL Time (53333 bps): < 1 minute



Dear Dexin and Satomi:

I am 44 years old. I was born in NYC, but moved to Tennessee when I was young, following my parents divorce. My Grandfather lived on Central Park West. I visited him every summer. When I was in high school I spent my summers in the city, living at, 68th and Broadway. I was a 'runner' for my grandfathers company, in the time before fax machnes and email. I was at the topping off of the Concourse in the North Tower when it was 'topped off' in 1973. When I traveled to NYC in the years since then, I have dined at Windows on the World, but more importantly, always rode the #1 to Century 21 and then down to South Ferry, just to see lower Manhattan.

This is why, on the 11th, I resolved to get up there as fast as I could, to help. I work in the Construction industry, so I was able to get access. I wish there was a way for me to explain what has happened sinceI wrote you the email you got on Monday. 2 hours after I wrote the email to you on Sunday, I got a call saying I was needed at the WTC site. I was there on Monday nite from around 10 pm, until 11 am today (Tuesday). I was literally on the site of the collapse with the soles of my boots almost melting from the still intense heat.

I think to understand what I have been thinking, it is important to know that I was up there for three days after the collapse, and was not able to help or find anyone. To me, your business card was the hope that I held to find someone that had made it.

In my life, I can now count the emails that I recieved from you two earlier tonite, as one of the most meaningful moments of my life. Last nite, while sitting on a melted and crooked beam, in what was the Plaza of your office building,surrounded by smoke and heavy equipmwnt, I took your card out of my wallet, looked at it, and said a short prayer that you and your family had some sort of peace. I am not a religous person, but the events of the 11th will make you one.

In any case, I left NYC today, took Amtrak to DC, and have driven to Virginia. When I logged on my computer tonite, a reply from you was not even in my thoughts. When I saw and read it, along with the beautiful words of your wife, I was stunned. For the first time since these difficult days, I cried like a little baby.

I called my wife, and she cried, too. I have emailed this story to several close friends around the country, and my guess is that you may recieve email from people you don't know, but who are grasping for wonderful stories like yours.

I am attaching a story I wrote about my first trip to the WTC. In it, I mention 'Chad' from Brooklyn. Like me, he has been having trouble getting back to normal after these events. I hope you won't mind that I am going to share this story with him. He, like many of us, needs a great and positive story to get thru this.

I cannot believe I am even writing this at 2 am. It took me this long to believe this has happened. In the first days of the cleanup, I saw something written in the dust of WTC 5. It said, "You haven't killed us, You've made us stronger".

I am going to come back to New York with my wife and 5 year old daughter in November or December. When I do, I am going to do whateve it takes to get Chad, his wife, and kids, and you two, and your kids (if any) , and we are going out to dinner at the the place that you two New Yorkers choose. When we do, we are going to have a toast to 3 things:

the good fortune of the Yuans,
the new kinship of our 3 American families,
and the memory of those that have been lost.

At that point, what was written on the wall will be true, and our three families will be able to say as a small part of our nation to the Terrorists: "You Lose"

I look forward to hearing from you both, and cannot wait until we can give thanks together for all that we have.

Don Nathan



PS - I have attached a scanned image of what i found on that dark and horrible nite, in between the cushions of a chair, in the lobby of a hotel, 3 blocks, and 86 stories from where it was early in the morning on September 11th.

10-14

Subject: Hope