Honoring

Honoring 9/11 becomes more important the older I get. I'm not sure why. I was no where near there when it happened. I don't know anyone directly impacted by the attack. But each year it seems to hit me harder.

 

(Please forgive me if this post causes anyone pain. That's not my intention at all. It just breaks my heart when I think of what the men and women who were impacted by this attack had to go through that day, and the months, and years following. I'm sharing this out of deepest respect.)

 

I spent most of Wednesday morning going over in my head what I wanted to write on here. I thought about the pictures I wanted to include, the stories I would tell. Then after work I picked Ally up from school and took her home, I stopped at Target to buy Beth an ottoman, came home, fixed dinner, showered, Chuck came home, and by the time I sat down here to write, all I could think of was "What have we been up to?" Completely forgot what day it was. When I went to bed that night I couldn't believe I didn't write about it.

The first time we went to New York was in 2004 and we stopped at Ground Zero. They had cleared most of the site and were now starting to rebuild.

 

 

These beams were found like this in the rubble. It became a source of hope for all the men and women working at Ground Zero. It's now in the 9/11 Museum in New York.

This firehouse was across the street from the Twin Towers and was demolished when they fell. They lost five men that day. Last week we watched a documentary that included some of those men.

 

This was shown on a documentary I saw a few years ago. You can see the firehouse on the left. (Sorry it's such poor quality. It's a screen shot from the TV.)

Twenty years after 9/11 we were in New York again and stopped at the beautiful memorial fountains that are now in the exact places where the towers once stood.

Plus thanks to our girls, Chuck and I got to see a play about 9/11, on Broadway in New York, the week of the twentieth anniversary. It's one of our favorite productions of of all time. We watch it again every year. (You can find it on Apple TV.)

 

We've had the honor of visiting the museum, a place we'd love to see again. There just wasn't enough time to see everything that day.

I took Ally home from school on Wednesday and I asked her if they did anything for 9/11. She asked, "What's 9/11?" When I told her then she remembered, but no, nothing was mentioned at school. What are we doing to make sure it doesn't happen again? I hope we truly never forget.

My Oldest Sister Died Today

My niece called at 6:30 this morning to tell me my sister had died. She was sobbing so I wasn't sure I heard her right. Honestly, I'm still in shock. It was totally unexpected. She was only 68.

I ran out of the bedroom and Sharaya and Ally were just getting ready to walk out the door when I told her, "Aunt Kathy died!" She immediately put down all her stuff and called Chuck and then Diana. I was still talking to my niece. We were both sobbing. 

Ken (my sister's husband) had been sick but was starting to feel much better. Then Kathy started feeling sick. My nice talked to her on the phone on Sunday and Kathy said she didn't feel good. She was congested and had a hard time coughing up stuff. When they went to bed last night Ken said "she had a hard time finding the right words." During the night the heater went out so he went outside to fix it and when he got back to bed she was unresponsive.

We don't know if she had a stroke or a heart attack... 

I called our other sister Deb and we cried for a while. 

Chuck came back home from work, Diana came over and we spent the day looking through old photos. During dinner we watched home movies. It still doesn't feel real.

L-R Kathy's the oldest, then me, and Deb.

 

 

We took these when we visited them in Colorado in October of 2020. These are the last pictures I have of us.

A Tragic Turn Of Events

Diana flew out here from Pennsylvania last week and we're all flying to San Diego to attend my nieces wedding on Saturday, August 10.

My niece Karlene has been through a lot the last few years, mostly due to poor choices, addictions, hanging with the wrong people, etc. She took responsibility for her actions and paid her dues. Now she's clean and sober, a contributing member of society living a healthy life.

She met her current boyfriend S a few years ago and he's walked with her through most of this difficult journey. He has loved her kids like they were his own and has been her rock.

Last Friday I was at the grocery store and my phone rang. As I'm putting it up to my ear I can hear somebody sobbing and Karlene says, "Aunt Cindy?!? I need you to pray!! Please pray!!!" 

S was riding his motorcycle to work and someone pulled out in front of him. He swerved to avoid hitting the car and fell hard on the road. The other driver kept going. As he laid in the road he was able to call 911 and then called Karlene. When she got there he was telling the EMTs that he felt okay and didn't want to go to the hospital. 

She took him to his moms house so he could change his shirt or something and he began to complain that his chest hurt. She insisted they go to the hospital and when they got there, they put him in an ambulance and took him to another hospital, a trauma center I think. That's where she found out that he had ruptured his aorta and they immediately took him into surgery. That's when she called me.

They repaired his aorta and got him stabilized. That night and all day Saturday she and all of his family were able to be with him and hang out in his room.

At 2:30 Sunday morning my phone rang again. I heard those familiar sobs again and, "Aunt Cindy I need you to pray!! Please pray!! Just pray!!!!"

S had rolled over. That's all. He was just laying in the hospital bed and he rolled over. And went into cardiac arrest. Six doctors and nurses came running into the room and one of them "jumped on his chest" and began compressions.

She was absolutely hysterical and I will never forget the sound of her sobs and the way she was yelling into the phone, telling me everything that was happening in real time. It was gut-wrenching.

They got his heart beating again but he suffered brain damage and has been unresponsive since. He's now on life support. 

The wedding they've been planning and one so many of us have been so excited to go to will now be a Celebration of Life.

Please keep Karlene and his whole family in your prayers.