Ugh. September 11th took two whole days to whack me on the head again this year, but this picture finally did it. This is Kelly Talty, looking at an image of her father, a policeman who died that day. She was born just a few weeks earlier, so she's seven now. I saw this picture in an LA Times someone left in the lunchroom here at work.I don't think everyone who reads this blog knows that my brother worked on the 102nd floor of the south tower, but he decided not to attend a meeting that day and instead went to Aon's New Jersey office, where he saw employees sobbing all around him as their coworkers in Manhattan died. Everyone he was supposed to meet with was killed. His boss and his boss's boss were killed. 250 people who worked at Aon died.
And my nephew Aiden, Pete's first kid, was born a few weeks later.
I wanted to post about 9/11 on the day, but I got too busy. Being a parent makes me more keenly aware of the kind of loss we almost had in our family. It wasn't exactly abstract before, but it's much more visceral now.
4 comments:
Oh how fortunate for your family Julie. Our niece Kerry Lee's best friend's dad worked for Kanter Fitzgerald. The girls stayed with us last summer and the effect on the family is still evident. He was a Columbia grad..I've not been to ground zero but I want to see it for myself.. something we will never forget.
Kiss the little guy for us. And the big guy as well...Tricia
I've always been kind of quiet about my own feelings about 9/11 because I didn't lose anyone I knew - but it affected me so strongly. All that loss. It hurts my heart.
I'm thankful for your family that your brother was not there.
Much love, D.
Sometimes I think we're the luckiest family. 9/11 is a hurdle for our family every year.
I can't imagine what it must be like for those who lost loved ones.
Peter's youngest son, Michael, is named for his boss who didn't survive.
Julie's Mom
Jeff actually called me on 9/11, which is interesting to think about now. We hadn't dated for a while, but he still thought to call me. I think he was feeling really out of touch with the event, because he was living in San Francisco at the time. I remember when I told him about Pete, Jeff felt like the whole thing was a little more real.
Anyway, I've processed this quite a bit in writing. At least we've stopped doing the thing every year where we sit around and wonder what Pete would have done if he'd been at the towers. That game wasn't really very much fun.
It's a weird kind of lucky, but yes, lucky.
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