Remembering 911 by The Loved and the lost (book club suggestions .txt) 📖

on that terrible day. There was no formula for how to deal with such a tragedy. My family and I have found that the grief can turn into such a consuming anger that there is no room for any other feeling. I wanted to save my family [from] the overwhelming grief...At Todd's memorial service we spoke of how he had overcome a difficulty as a child when he was unable to go to school due an anxiety disorder. Todd overcame that disorder with the support of a skilled therapist and the love of his family. We deiced to use Todd's story to help others who similarly sufferer; Todd's story has inspired and helped many. For us, that has been the path to healing. Thus the tragedy has been transformed into hope for others.

This story tells you that you can find hope somewhere in the middle of the anger and pain of losing someone. You can get passed it and there are people there to help. A friend or family or maybe even a stranger knowing or not knowing can help you. The when the anger is gone only grief is left, and there is someone there to help with the grief. And like this story a story can help someone and just one smile or just one action can help someone so much.

 

Recalling a day. Remembering a life.

"Recalling a day, remembering a life."~Loretta Filipov

My husband, Alexander M. Filipov, was killed on AA#11, the first airplane to hit the towers on September 11, 2001. [At fist,] I was angry and confused, hopeless, as if I were in a black hole, never to come out. But then, I thought of my husband: the stories he would tell, the way he helped our sons with their math, teaching them to sail by using the position of the stars, his love of gardening and inventing and painting. He sought out the best in people and cared about the world in all its beauty and pain. I knew he would not want me to be angry. In his name, and to celebrate the way he lived his life and not how he died, the Al Filipov Peace & Justice Forum (www.alfilipov.org) was established. Each September, the forum invites a distinguished speaker from a variety of backgrounds and faith traditions to encourage listeners to work for social justice in their lives, communities and world.

This women felt like she was stuck and that 'this is the end' but then she remembered the love and the good. Every one who loves someone will always be either sad or angry and that is normal but the better thing to do it try to replace the bad with the good and find a way to honor the lost. This women did it by every September honoring her husband by helping others with a forum and she brings in a speaker to speak those who are in pain. This is the kind of love that spreads and heals.

 

Our loved ones are finally home

"Our loved ones are finally home."~Monica Iken

I lost my husband, Michael Patrik Iken, on 9/11. He work for Euro Brokers in the south tower on the 84th floor...I was happily married, looking forward to having a child with my husband and, you know, he just goes to work one day and never comes home...For someone like myself, who never received any remains or any personal personal effects of Michael, I really felt that site where he took his last breath, his last step--[that] his essence of being was there. And since I couldn't bring him home, I really felt connected to the space, that that was the place that I wanted to go to honor my husband in the future. And I didn't want that right to be taken away from myself and anyone else who felt that way as well. So it became my mission to make sure that we have that space in the future to be able to honor our loved ones and tell their story and tell what happened that day. And [now we have] this memorial...I think for us, we need to know they are home. I think that it is very important in this process of healing, that now we have a place to go...that is where their final resting place is.

'Home is where the heart is' is what comes to mind. This women made sure that people could be where their loved ones passed and that they could honor them on their resting place. She couldn't see her husband after the terrible day but she wanted to honor him as if she did she him where he passed. She made  a point when she said loved ones are finally home. Her husbands home is in her heart and where he took his last breath.

Grief opened the gates of compassion

"Grief opened the gates of compassion."~Susan Retik

I married my college sweetheart, we had to young kids, and I was pregnant with our third. My husband, David, was traveling en route from Boston to L.A. when his flight was hijacked, and crashed into hte World Trade Center. In a flash of an eye, I went from living the American dream to being at the center of America's worst nightmare. In the days and weeks after September 11th, I was immediately inundated with love and support from friends, family, and even strangers from around the world and the support truly buoyed me up, and enabled me to move forward. The inspiration to reach out to widows in Afghanistan [via beyond the 1th] really was a direct result of the support that I felt, having been widowed here in the United States and recognizing that the women in Afghanistan, when widowed, really had no support whatsoever. I feel a bond with these women because we've been terrorized by the same group of people. In May of 2006, we had an opportunity to meet to many of the women that we partaking in the programs. Although we come from such different backgrounds, [all those differences] really just got stripped away when we sitting and having tea. We're all women, all wanting the same things for our children.

Compassion usually follows the line of grief and there are different kinds of compassion for different reasons but they all have at least one thing in common, grief. Like these women, they come different places and different backgrounds but one thing is all the same, compassion and grief. They all lost a loved one and this women looked past the differences and saw women who where going through the same thing. They all lost someone close to them and they all share grief and compassion. Differences are set aside and they come together to help each other out.

 

Kept students calm, I cried inside

"Kept students calm, I cried inside."~Lisa Bottone

I am a seventh grade teacher. My principal handed me a piece of paper with info on it about what happened or what he knew/thought had happened. More importantly at the time, I was instructed to keep the kids in my room, keep them calm, and not talk about it. I carried on as best as I could. They were calm and safe with me for a brief time until hell broke lose a short while after. Not until my room was empty of students did I break down in full hysterics. I had been holding it inside for more than should have been expected.

I do not know how she was able to hold it in that long but this women stayed strong for these kids and she did all she could to hold it in until they left and then she let the gates open and she held it in and kept so strong when many would have lost it and she fought the pain until it was safe to let it go. She fought for the sake of the students and she stayed strong.

Patriotic, Overwhelmed, Proud, Faith, Inadequate, Humbled.

"Patriotic, Overwhelmed, Proud, Faith, Inadequate, Humbled." Sarah Atlas

I was proud to be able to assist when the pager when off at 8:46 a.m. After arriving, my team and I were told to began searching with the dogs. We walked 15 blocks to the piles, past hundreds of fire fighters, civilians