story10427.xml

story10427.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-02-08

I'm a disaster relief counselor for an international organization supporting families of terrorism victims. I was in the locker room at my YMCA, getting ready for a workout, when someone ran into the locker room with the news of what was happening. I got dressed and ran out to the lobby in time to watch the second plane hit the South Tower. Then I went home to wait for the phone call. For the next three weeks I did 12-hour shifts on the phones, fielding calls from family members desperate for information, or just wanting to tell their stories over and over again...as if in the retelling they might be able to get their hearts and minds around something so devastating.
A month later, I went to Manhattan as a Red Cross volunteer, and the stories were harder to hear.

The people of New York did not feel what the terrorists wanted them to feel. When people told their stories I saw the same expression in every face. It took me awhile to realize it was not terror or anger I was seeing, it was sorrow. It was an intense expression of empathy on behalf of those who did not survive. After they told their heartbreaking stories, inevitably, they would ask me if there was some way they could help someone else.

I'll never forget that.