We Remember 9/11
/Remembering 9/11
Five years, 15 years, 25 years, or more. It doesn't matter how long ago.
We will remember.
Unimagined Horror
Airplanes, whose purpose is to move us here and there, had that benevolent purpose twisted and perverted. They were used instead as weapons of terror.
The world watched in horror as airplanes were hijacked and flung into wanton acts of death and destruction.
A photo taken on September 10, 2001
A World Changed Forever
Lives were shattered as evil exploded past barriers of comprehension. There have been a lot of articles that cover the lives lost.
Everyone is familiar with stories of both the fêted and the unsung heroes who selflessly sacrificed for others, for people they didn't even know. We know many stories of loved ones lost.
Sometimes, certain people stand out for us. For me, it's the Hanson family.
A Family Held In Time
The Hanson family is forever frozen in time as a Christmas family from 2010. They were not allowed to live to see their next Christmas.
All three of them were obliterated because they were flying together on United Airlines Flight 175 on September 11, 2001. That plane crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower.
Their little girl, Christine, with her wide smile, red hat and sweater, was only 2 1/2 years old. She was the youngest fatality on the flights. Her parents, Peter and Sue Kim Hanson, hailed from Massachusetts. They were headed for her first adventure in Disneyland and to visit Sue's family in California.
Peter Called His Father From The Plane
Phoning from the plane, Peter Hanson was able to reach his father, C. Lee Hanson. Peter told his father that hijackers appeared to be planning to crash the plane into a building.
"Don't worry, Dad. If it happens, it will be quick," Peter said with his Korean-American wife and his little girl, Christine, sitting next to him.
Moments later, Peter's father watched on television as his son's plane burst into a fireball as it hit the World Trade Center building.
Sue Kim Hanson was a doctoral candidate in microbiology-immunology at Boston University. Peter Hanson held an MBA and was vice-president of sales at a software company. Little Christine loved helping her father in the garden.
I didn't know them personally. I have never met any of their family. Yet they remain forever seared upon my heart.
I cannot begin to imagine what they went through in those last moments as their bodies crashed into the building. The grief of their family and friends must be an excruciating pain.
People Work Together
Almost as soon as the World Trade Center’s twin towers fell, thousands of firefighters, police officers, construction workers, search-and-rescue dogs and volunteers headed to Ground Zero to offer their help.
A search-and-rescue dog from 9/11 is comforted and receives subcutaneous fluids to help with dehydration.
The cleanup and recovery efforts at Ground Zero lasted for more than a year, with crews working around the clock.
A Flower At The 9/11 Memorial
We see the hand of Pope Francis as he lays a white rose on the 9/11 Memorial on September 25, 2015.
The 9/11 Memorial is located at the site of the former World Trade Center complex and occupies approximately half of the 16-acre site. The memorial plaza is an eco-friendly site. There are more than 400 trees surrounding the reflective pools. A drop of healing nature in a big city of concrete.
“The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.”
The Mission Statement for The National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center reads:
“May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance and intolerance.”
We remember 9/11.
