Hearing a Tale of Survival On The 9/11 Attacks in Downtown Manhattan

dyerohmeb • Sep 28, 2014

We had a roommate here in our Stapleton, Staten Island house one time and who briefly stayed with us, as in less than a week if I recall it right. He's a paramedic, of small stature, a native New Yorker, and with a bearded face (then). He's a sweet fellow and soft spoken. What surprised me a lot about him was how he almost looks like a paradoxical figure to my mind up to now and he's one of those who could change his image in a few days, perhaps like a chameleon. That's precisely why I got to chat with him as I was thinking he's a new fellow who's living or most probably visiting us. I usually remember faces even if I've not seen them in long years, but in this case, I failed to recognize that I was talking with the same guy whom I met one evening when I came home to have him introduced to me by our landlord.

On that afternoon occasion while I was doing my chores around the house, my curiosity got me and I decided to ask him how's he doing. I would soon realize that he also had a very sensitive nature that somehow I missed as I made a remark that I thought he's a new and different person. He must have taken it personally; I'm not sure if he did so. And I recall this brief event took place with my landlord around and most probably couldn't hear much about the talk as he's partly deaf.

On TV, we were seeing images related to the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. Soon this fellow was relating to us how he managed to survive being among the first paramedics who showed up when the Twin Towers were being destroyed by 2 commercial airplanes. It was his day-off then but as what his calling meant to him, he had to show up at the scene as soon as possible. Amidst all the works he and his companions had to do right at that moment, he had to face the morbid experience of losing a very dear colleague and friend during the attacks. He related how he listened to this dear friend's voice, who's also a paramedic, as she talked out the last moments over the 2-way-radio when she was dying somewhere in the ruins of the Twin Towers. Based on how he described it to me, I got the sense that she tried to brave it out until she's gone. And I got the impression that that is some courage I could emulate in my daily life. Soon, this fellow's voice would break out at this point and the emotions flowing from him were palpably strong and tearful but he wasn't showing up everything to us. I thought that was OK but I began to realize how a lot of people out there still have so much of their strong feelings, grief included, over the 9/11 attacks. Of course, we are never sure how these feelings would be overcome, if ever they could be overcome at all.

I still shake my head in disbelief over these stories. Every time I watch those ceremonies held during 9/11

anniversary, I still can't help myself but cry as well with those who recite the names of their loved ones who perished during the attacks. I guess it's mainly because I am very familiar with this very personal feeling called 'grief.' I'm amazed at how individuals go about managing their respective grieving feelings over deaths and the future deaths directly and indirectly related to and brought about by these attacks. I have an idea of how it is as I have lost loved ones myself (they include my father, a dear friend who was murdered, another dear friend who committed suicide, a good friend who immigrated here in the USA just to die from a car accident because she was in the passenger side when the car crashed on them, those elder relatives who passed on, a 7-day old sibling, and other wonderful individuals whose presence I miss nowadays). I can imagine that fellow who stayed briefly in our place must have those similar concerns, too, as he was there immediately and during the attacks. I've been learning that a lot of people like him now begin to suffer because of their health issues that were brought about the effects of inhaling air (or something unknown to us as of now) in that area somewhere in Downtown Manhattan. Oh, well, with the status now on how terrorism threats are being managed by governments, I don't how such similar experiences will end soon.

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