2996 HUMAN BEINGS

 September 11, 2001, 2996 people lost their lives.
the youngest was only 2 years old,
the oldest was 85.

There have been innumerable losses since due to injuries and exposure to the toxic dust at Ground Zero.

As a former Rockland County NY resident, I have always listed those
local residents that we lost on 9/11/2001

Ø Janet M. Alonso 41 Stony Point NY

Ø Calixto Anaya Jr. 35 Suffern NY

Ø Japhet J. Aryee 49 Spring Valley NY

Ø Richard E. Bosco 34 Suffern NY

Ø Sgt. John Gerard Coughlin 43 Pomona NY

Ø Welles Remy Crowther 24 Upper Nyack NY

Ø John D' Allara 47 Pearl River NY

Ø Bernard D. Favuzza 52 Suffern NY

Ø Thomas Foley 32 West Nyack NY

Ø Andrew Fredericks 40 Suffern NY

Ø Robert Joseph Gschaar 55 Spring Valley NY

Ø Dana Hannon 29 Suffern NY

Ø Capt. Frederick Ill Jr. 49 Pearl River NY

Ø Farah Jeudy 32 Spring Valley NY

Ø Joseph Marchbanks Jr. 47 Nanuet NY

Ø John Marshall 35 Congers NY

Ø Patricia A. McAneney 50 Pomona NY

Ø Robert Garvin McCarthy 33 Stony Point NY
Ø Robert William McPadden 30 Pearl River NY

Ø Luke G. Nee 44 Stony Point NY

Ø Gerald O'Leary 34 Stony Point NY

Ø David Ortiz 37 Nanuet NY

Ø Lt. Vernon Allan Richard 53 Nanuet NY

Ø Thomas G. Schoales 27 Stony Point NY

Ø Mohammed Shajahan 41 Spring Valley NY

Ø Gregory Sikorsky 34 Spring Valley NY

Ø Catherine T. Smith 44 West Haverstraw NY

Ø Robert W. Spear Jr. 30 Valley Cottage NY

Ø Loretta A, Vero 51 Nanuet NY

Ø Benjamin Walker 41 Suffern NY

Ø Weibin Wang 41 Orangeburg NY

Ø Steven Weinberg 41 New City NY

Ø Capt. David T. Wooley 53 Nanuet NY

Visit the 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM online

It is so hard to realize that 20-years have passed since that dreadful day. 

My husband and I were home that day, together, when my sister called me. She had been watching television when the news broadcast came in that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. Ironically my husband had been working down there the day before on an Audio-Visual event, it was scheduled for 2-days, but one of the presenters had a prior commitment, so it was scheduled for the 10th and the 12th instead.

Two planes had crashed into the North and South towers of the WTC. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers tried to take the plane back from the terrorists behind this horror. There were 19 terrorists on the 4 planes in this suicide mission.

I remember the panicked calls from my son, in high school at the time, and my daughter, away at college. They wanted to know where their dad was.

Being members of our local ambulance corps in Rockland County NY, we responded to the building. No one knew what to expect next. There had been futile hopes that there would be many survivors who needed medical help and our local ambulance corps made preparations to help unload victims for transport to local hospitals. Sadly, that need never came to be.

Rockland County ambulance corps sent rigs to the scene that evening to try to help. My husband was on one of those rigs. Our son, a youth corps member at the time, helped to stock the truck and watched as his dad and crew drove away. My husband returned home very early the next morning — there had been no survivors to treat or transport. He cried at what he had seen.

Our daughter came home from college to help in the ambulance building. We did have several local residents walking around dazed, some of them were still hoping to hear from loved ones who had been in the buildings. They came in for comfort, for blood-pressure checks, and just to be able to sit and cry.

Rockland County had lost more than 30 souls that day, I knew a few of them, and I knew a few of the families. Some who died had been at jobs, some were passengers on the ill fated flights, others were 1st responders, firefighters, police and EMS, who tried to save as many as possible. Even days later, no one was able to fathom what had just happened. 

Over 40% of those who died that day have yet to be identified even 20 years later. There have been more than 1500 deaths from various cancers among Ground Zero responders and those who lived or worked in the area. Many more are fighting  Certified WTC-related illnesses.

Today, September 11. 2021... the heart still aches for all we lost.

... 20-years later.

9/11 Memorial "Tear Drop"
in Bayonne New Jersey

Pentagon 9/11 Memorial
Arlington Virginia

Flight 93 Memorial
Shanksville Pennsylvania

Fifteen Years to Think ~ #MondayBlogs

For me, like many others in America, yesterday, September 11, was a day of reflection, prayer, shudders, and probably some tears. Like many others in America I can recall almost exactly where I was, who I spoke to, the horror I felt as I watched (on TV) the buildings as one burnt, the other was attacked, and they both fell. There was added shock as we heard of the attack on the Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. And like many other Americans I attended candlelight vigils, reached out to friends and relatives, and cried.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 I went back to bed after my son left for school for time to cuddle with my husband who had an unexpected day off. [He was working as an Audio Visual tech on a two-day event in NYC; due to a scheduling conflict the event was scheduled for the 10^th and the 12^th and was being held in the Marriot Hotel at the World Trade Center.]

Shortly before 9:00 AM my sister called, she had been watching TV, I remember her words, “A plane just hit one of the World Trade Center buildings… Go turn on your TV.” I ran to the living room incoherently repeating what I couldn’t yet believe, my husband followed. We turned the set on and saw flames from one of the buildings and it was just minutes later that we watched a plane hit building 2. I remember hearing someone, myself, repeating “Oh my G-d, oh my G-d.”

A friend of mine, a paramedic, called, the siren screaming behind her, asking me to cancel our ambulance youth squad meeting that night and telling me that her rig was heading to lower Manhattan. I remember the distress in her voice. I made phone calls and left voice messages cancelling the meeting.

My sister and I were on the phone again. She was calling relatives who worked in Manhattan to make sure they were all alright and we were running down the list.

Almost an hour after the first plane struck, building 2 crumbled with everyone watching TV witnessing it. My husband was getting dressed to head to our local ambulance corps building 40 minutes north of the devastation.

The phone rang again, this time it was our son, he was hiding in a school alcove using a cell phone from his backpack that was supposed to remain off while at school. “Mom, where is Dad?” I can still hear the terror in his words even now 15 years later. I was able to reassure him that his dad was safe.

About an hour and a half after I turned my television on, building 1 collapsed demolishing the Marriot Hotel and setting 7 WTC on fire. After another phone call, this time from my daughter (upstate at college) checking on our safety and telling me she was heading back home, I got dressed and followed my husband to the local ambulance corps where we both volunteered as EMTs.

People congregated at the building offering help answering phones, comforting and treating distraught walk-ins, and setting up rehab for any of the wounded transported here because the NYC hospitals were both overflowing and too close to an area in danger. I sat with two young men who were desperate to hear about family, one cousin and one father – the father made it home, the cousin perished in the rubble. We began to hear of other community members who were never going to come home again.

Most of the youth squad members showed up at the building despite receiving the messages. My daughter made the trek home and helped with all the phone calls, oversaw the youth members, and assisted walk-ins. At one point we received the directive from our county’s EMS control that most of the corps, including ours, were sending crews to the city. A few of our youth squad members helped outfit the truck with the specified equipment. My son was one of the teenagers assigned to readying the truck.

My husband was one of four EMTs who went to the city. Our rig was one of a long line of ambulances sent to the disaster from all over the tristate area. They stood by through the night and many went home the next morning frustrated by the lack of injured — too many deaths and too few still alive to receive treatment and transport, too few to save.

Fifteen years since this horror… the Freedom Tower now stands in lower Manhattan, and reflecting pools mark the footprint of the original buildings. The National 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center and many memorials throughout the tristate area have helped to document the events of the day. Families and friends who lost loved ones have learned somehow to survive with the loss and pain.

Those of us who lived the day will never forget.

And we shall tell our children ~ #NeverForget

September 11, 2001

And we shall tell our children

That on this day there was

A callous disregard for human life

All ages, genders, religions, ethnicities,

Political persuasions and nationalities were touched.

And we shall tell our children

How strangers helped strangers

How heroes rose from the dust

The selfless courage of many stood out

People thought of loved ones in final moments.

And we shall tell our children

There was a coward who failed to break us

Grieving widows and widowers raised their children

Daughters, sons, mothers, fathers and siblings

Have honored their loved ones by living.

And we shall tell our children

Years later with resilience and resolve

A skyscraper rose, a building was repaired

and monuments are standing

We will remember and never forget

Keeping our loved ones alive in hearts and dreams.

There will be no second death.

(poem by Chelle Cordero, copyright 2015)

#TBT - September 11, 2001 Never Forget...

We use the #Throwback Thursday meme to remember things from the past, what happened on 9/11/01 is a memory I am sure many of us wish we didn't have...

Never forget the innocent souls that we lost on that day and never forget the way the world changed.

We saw the opening of the

this year

"The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993."

Rockland County Residents

Janet M. Alonso 41 Stony Point NY
Calixto Anaya Jr. 35 Suffern NY
Japhet J. Aryee 49 Spring Valley NY
Richard E. Bosco 34 Suffern NY
Sgt. John Gerard Coughlin 43 Pomona NY
Welles Remy Crowther 24 Upper Nyack NY
John D' Allara 47 Pearl River NY
Bernard D. Favuzza 52 Suffern NY
Thomas Foley 32 West Nyack NY
Andrew Fredericks 40 Suffern NY
Robert Joseph Gschaar 55 Spring Valley NY
Dana Hannon 29 Suffern NY
Capt. Frederick Ill Jr. 49 Pearl River NY
Farah Jeudy 32 Spring Valley NY
Joseph Marchbanks Jr. 47 Nanuet NY
John Marshall 35 Congers NY
Patricia A. McAneney 50 Pomona NY
Robert Garvin McCarthy 33 Stony Point NY
Robert William McPadden 30 Pearl River NY
Luke G. Nee 44 Stony Point NY
Gerald O'Leary 34 Stony Point NY
David Ortiz 37 Nanuet NY
Lt. Vernon Allan Richard 53 Nanuet NY
Thomas G. Schoales 27 Stony Point NY
Mohammed Shajahan 41 Spring Valley NY
Gregory Sikorsky 34 Spring Valley NY
Catherine T. Smith 44 West Haverstraw NY
Robert W. Spear Jr. 30 Valley Cottage NY
Loretta A, Vero 51 Nanuet NY
Benjamin Walker 41 Suffern NY
Weibin Wang 41 Orangeburg NY
Steven Weinberg 41 New City NY

Capt. David T. Wooley 53 Nanuet NY

for a complete list: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/index.html

Scripture tells us "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." There's no better way to honor the best in those who died than by discovering the best in ourselves. (President Obama, 9/11/2012, Pentagon Memorial Service)

12 years ago, sometimes it feels like yesterday...

Scripture tells us "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." There's no better way to honor the best in those who died than by discovering the best in ourselves. (President Obama, 9/11/2012, Pentagon Memorial Service)

Rockland County Residents

Janet M. Alonso 41 Stony Point NY
Calixto Anaya Jr. 35 Suffern NY
Japhet J. Aryee 49 Spring Valley NY
Richard E. Bosco 34 Suffern NY
Sgt. John Gerard Coughlin 43 Pomona NY
Welles Remy Crowther 24 Upper Nyack NY
John D' Allara 47 Pearl River NY
Bernard D. Favuzza 52 Suffern NY
Thomas Foley 32 West Nyack NY
Andrew Fredericks 40 Suffern NY
Robert Joseph Gschaar 55 Spring Valley NY
Dana Hannon 29 Suffern NY
Capt. Frederick Ill Jr. 49 Pearl River NY
Farah Jeudy 32 Spring Valley NY
Joseph Marchbanks Jr. 47 Nanuet NY
John Marshall 35 Congers NY
Patricia A. McAneney 50 Pomona NY
Robert Garvin McCarthy 33 Stony Point NY
Robert William McPadden 30 Pearl River NY
Luke G. Nee 44 Stony Point NY
Gerald O'Leary 34 Stony Point NY
David Ortiz 37 Nanuet NY
Lt. Vernon Allan Richard 53 Nanuet NY
Thomas G. Schoales 27 Stony Point NY
Mohammed Shajahan 41 Spring Valley NY
Gregory Sikorsky 34 Spring Valley NY
Catherine T. Smith 44 West Haverstraw NY
Robert W. Spear Jr. 30 Valley Cottage NY
Loretta A, Vero 51 Nanuet NY
Benjamin Walker 41 Suffern NY
Weibin Wang 41 Orangeburg NY
Steven Weinberg 41 New City NY

Capt. David T. Wooley 53 Nanuet NY

for a complete list: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/index.html