I can’t stand to see one more news story about someone who looked and looked and looked for a loved one, only to come to the sad realization that the loved one perished in the disaster. I have empathized with these people until I have no more tears left. For days all I could think about was how I would feel if that were me, wandering the streets looking for my husband.
I would just like to see a few stories where someone searched and searched and then FOUND the person they were looking for. Would that be so hard? I know there must be stories like that out there. I know there must be people who wandered the streets for several hours and then met up with their husband, wife, daughter, boyfriend, or whoever. Can’t I see just a few of those stories instead?
I have turned off the news and stopped thinking about the tragedy, because it was destroying my ability to function as a normal human being. But seeing just a few stories that ended with happy people who found each other would have done me a world of good, I think.
Maybe I’ll just go to bed now and try not to have nightmares.
I’m not sure where I saw it at - I seem to remember it was the Newsweek site - but here’s a happy one.
Teacher was evacuating school when one of the towers went down. Everyone running, blinded by smoke and dust, debris falling everywhere. She sees a little girl all alone, so she grabs her hand and drags her along with her. They finally reach some sort of aid station and stop there.
Some time later, while trying to clean up a little and drink some water, a man wearing a dusk mask enters the shelter.
It is the little girl’s father.
Somehow, someway, he had found her.
When I get a chance I’ll see if I can find the link.
If they’ve checked the hospitals and shelters and didn’t find them in 9 days after the attack, or even 4 days, I don’t understand what they are looking for. It made me so sad to see all of those people on TV desperately looking for their family members or friends. If it happened to my family, I would be hoping against hope that, by some miracle, they would pull a survivor from the rubble. I just don’t understand the purpose of showing the pictures to a national audience. Don’t get me wrong, I think the wall of prayer is very touching and very needed to remember these people, but what good does posting flyers all over the city do?
If this sounds harsh, I don’t mean it to sound that way. I’m just trying to understand this.
Thanks, coosa. That DID make me feel a little better. And Nutty Bunny, sadly I agree. I was talking more of the people who were searching in the first day or so after the attacks… sigh.
I encountered another three ‘found’ stories - one on the local radio, the other two on TV news.
One where a news crew just followed a woman and her two daughters as they searched for their dad, a chef in one of the restaurants. Coworkers of his had said that he said that no terrorist was driving him out in fear… he stayed behind when the others left. Of course, everyone is thinking, “idiot”, and “he’s probably dead.” They kept following as the mom and two kids kept looking, going to hospitals, and shelter areas, and so forth, the mom trying to be brave, the older daughter trying not to give up (very shaken), the younger daughter in blind faith that he was okay. Four hours later, they found him, alive, unharmed even (he apparently grew some sense shortly after the rest of the folk left).
One where a guy lost track of his mother, who has a health condition and can’t walk fast - I can’t remember all the details, but she ‘should’ have been right under the debris zone when the buildings fell. After searching in desperation through the hospitals for three hours, he finally called his own apartment to check for messages - she was safe at a friend’s apartment.
And the one that really got me crying was the radio one - a reporter was on the sidewalk after the collapse (before noon, but don’t know how long before), and was speaking to a woman who just kept saying in disbelief “My husband works on the 65th floor… but there isn’t a 65th floor anymore… there isn’t a BUILDING anymore…” then you hear her start to sob uncontrollably - but it turns out she started sobbing because out of the dust, who should be walking towards her but her husband. Completely covered in concrete powder and ash, but alive, and relatively unharmed. The reporter then breifly interviewed the husband, who was pretty clearly still in shock, while his wife (presumably) cried on him (kinda muffled sound).
I also heard that a great many reunions happened at schools, because both parents immediately raced to get the kids, if they were mobile at all.
I saw the first story hedra mentioned. It was really something.
I heard a very different story today. It isn’t a “found” story, but it’s a story about not having to wonder. A woman in my college graduating class (it was a small class of less than 200; we know everyone) was killed immediately by the second crash. Her coworkers and she were trying to get out after the first crash when the second plane hit their tower. I have no idea how she sustained the injuries, but her coworkers took her pulse, knew she was gone, and then got out. They were able to tell her family that she really was gone, that she didn’t suffer. As fricking horrible that it is that she’s gone, there is some comfort in knowing that she really is dead and that she went before the collapse.
there was a story on cnn or abc where an elderly couple had gotten separated. the wife ended up at a red cross shelter where she met a volunteer named sergio. sergio did tons of leg work, going here and there to check lists, fill out forms, make up flyers, etc. then sergio’s cell phone rings, her husband called he was at their apartment. the apartment building had been evacuated and no one was supposed to be there. so one thought to look for him there. the husband thought she would go home when they got separated. a neighbour had called him to tell him he was on the missing list. the reunion of the couple was fantastic. they hugged for a good long time then the wife called out “where is sergio?” a long hug of hubby, wife, and sergio ensued.