"The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making."
- Lillian Smith (1897-1966), American writer
A blogger who calls herself "Right Thinking Girl" has fallen in love with Sean, a man who lost his wife in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She recounts what it's like to talk with him about his dead wife and to share the pain he is still carrying in his heart for her.
Recently, Sean told her he had experienced a nightmare about his wife's death:
"He started to tell me that he had a nightmare and she had jumped. She was standing in the window, in her little pantsuit and pumps, looking down. It was flames or freefall. Then he was there, beside her, and he was asking her to try and get out, then she fell...When he woke up he was sick."
"Right thinking girl" tries to console him, giving him assurances that his spouse wasn't in pain when she died, but thinks he's unconvinced. She listens to him talk about how guilty he feels that he couldn't save her and she attempts to persuade him there was nothing he could have done.
She's angry and sad that the fall-out from that terrible day continues to haunt her and many others like her, and realizes the grief will be with Sean, and with her, for a long time:
"The fight against terrorism isn't just happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world. It's still happening here at home, in places like Virginia and New York City...It's being waged every time a wife wakes up to the crying baby who will never know his father, and every time a man wakes up in a cold sweat dreaming that his wife jumped to avoid being burned alive."
Read the entire post. It's a touching story, one that those of us who weren't directly affected by this great tragedy need to hear again and again.
My thanks to A.W. over at the Free Speech weblog for this link.
Update: Should you need reminding about what happened in New York City on that crisp, fall morning in September, 2001, click on the link in this old entry.
1 comment:
There is no way in this world I could ever forget what happened on September 11 just before 9:00am. My husband and I were just checking out of the Comfort Inn in Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec when the I became aware of the television with the scene of the first tower with black smoke billowing out of it. It looked surreal and because the car was running, I couldn't stay to figure out what was going on. Thirty minutes or so later, my cell phone rang with my Mother on the other end telling me about the horror in New York. We just drove, very much in shock at the incredible news and still very much in the dark about what was going on back in the states. Several hours later, after arriving at out intended destination, we could tune into CNN for the everlasting coverage.
The thing is, this is three years later and we have had a lot of life lived since then. We haven't forgotten, but we have moved on, a little sadder and a lot wiser to the evil in the world. Should we keep from blowing ourselves and everyone else up in the next 100 years, the whole episode will have nestled snugly into the history of the world and will be looked upon as just one horrific event among the many that will have taken place by then.
Too bad. But that is the way of things, it seems.
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