Editor’s Pick
SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 3:39PM
A New York City Child's Daily Walk of Remembrance
The little girl above is my granddaughter, Sabrina Rose. For the past three years, five days a week, her 15-minute walk to and from pre-school in the West Village in downtown New York offered vivid reminders of 9/11, including the fence behind her in the photo.
Sabrina wasn't born when the tragedy happened, but she's lived her whole life in what would have been the shadows of The World Trade Center. Both her father and her uncle lived downtown on 9/11/01, and had friends who worked in the twin towers.
From his apartment, my son Cary saw the second plane hit, and watched the iconic buildings fall. (His former university classmate, Jeremy Glick, was one of the heros of United 93, who helped cause the plane to crash in a Pennsylvania field, rather than hit a building in Washington, D.C. Last year I made a pilgrimage to the crash site, and wrote about it here.)
My older son Randall, who had held business meetings in the World Trade Center just days before the attack, volunteered at Ground Zero in the days after, offering food to firefighters and other workers in the sulphurous, burning rubble.
Sabrina's school is right next door to FDNY Squad 18, with its proudly painted firehouse doors. The firefighters are good neighbors to the preschoolers and invite them to sit in the firetrucks.
That Greenwich Village firehouse lost seven firefighters on 9/11.
On a memorial plaque at the firehouse, a line by poet Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself says: "They have cleared the beams away, they tenderly Lift me forth."
Between the school and firehouse, and Sabrina's apartment, is St. Vincent's Hospital. Firefighters treated at the hospital after the initial attack returned to the WTC site only to be killed when the towers collapsed. Walls of the hospital displayed photos and information in the weeks after 9/11, placed by people who hoped against hope that their loved ones were lost, not killed.
The link fence across the street at a parking lot now displays hundreds of tiles, created by individuals and groups, children and artists from around the world. In their simplicity and variety the tiles are haunting, and I have photographed many of them over the years.
Tiles for America has remained a people's memorial for eight years, a testament to those who lost their lives in the towers that once loomed dramatically above this fence. The tiles ensure that Sabrina and others who walk by this corner will not forget 9/11 -- on this day of remembrance, or on any day.
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Comments
And your granddaughter is an angel (she looks just like you, too).
dharma, when you pass the tiles and the firehouse maybe hundreds of times, the reality sinks in slowly and steadily. New Yorkers live with it.
And you know I've been told Sabrina and I look alike, but for the first time, side by side, I see it a bit myself, in the smile. Quite thrilling for me actually, as she is a lovely little girl.
Rated
And I agree that your granddaughter looks a lot like you. Lucky girl!
LittleW, I think that too, but so nice to hear it from someone outside the family.
Gwen, Barry and Maria, I appreciate your kind words and the fact that you understand the simplicity and beauty of these "real" memorials. (And Gwen, thanks for stopping by my previous post.)
fab, the tiles are so humble and the fence surrounds a Municipal Transit Authority Parking Lot. Not a beautiful setting, but the spontaneity of the art and the fact it has endured for years, speaks to the heart.
Yes Deborah, it's hard to believe but many children were not born in '01 and only know about the tragedy through memorials and remembrances.
Michael, beautiful and true thoughts. Live each day to the fullest.
Owl, you are so wise, and that's not just a pun.
I'm so relieved Cary was far enough away to be safe...
My feelings about 9/11/01 are so complicated. I would give tribute to the bravest who tried to help those trapped inside, and those who treated the injured. To those who lost family members and to those who watched the towers destroyed in person. I would not wish to deny, diminish, or dishonor any of their feelings, or any of the love they feel toward those who lost.
For me, what I regret almost more than the event itself, which appeared to bring out the best in America, was the political aftermath, which brought out the worst. What else would one expect of fear and anger? I will always regret that 9/11/01 gave George Bush so much political capital and for a short time, credibility to do so much damage to our nation. That so many were so ready to allow him do what he wanted. And now we seem to be in a vast vat of *&%$ morally and financially because of it. And those who said "Hang on, Invading Iraq is not so smart--" were promptly accused of "hating America" and had "9/11" crammed down our throats yet again.
And the final insult is, Osama bin Laden has yet to pay for what happened that day. His family was hustled out of this country without even being questioned while the no-fly rule was still enforced.
And if it hadn't been for The Jersey Girls, the 9/11 commission and the commission's report, would never have seen the light of day. For all that, serious unanswered questions remain about what really happened that day.
All of which ticks me off.
Though I would love to walk her to school some day..
And:
Gary, since you know Cary, you probably would guess that after he saw the tower go he headed uptown as fast as he could get there.
Shiral, yes there is so much yet to be ticked off about. One other thing is that the memorial is not even close to being completed in the next years.
Barbara Anne, I can certainly understand not wanting your daughter born on that day. Oh my.
Thank you for this.
And I love the way the firefighters who died that day have been honored by their colleagues.
Dharma said it best, so I'll just say thanks and leave it at that.
My daughter was born in 2004 and I still think about when I am going to tell her the story of her parents being there in NYC that day. It's still too heavy...
thanx