9/11, Two Photographs, and Chance
On 9/11, an Australian photographer was working in NYC. He’d been covering the US Open.
He was planning on taking the day off, but he was called after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. He was arriving in the area when the 2nd tower collapsed.
He spent the rest of the day documenting the attack and its aftermath. Many of his photos that day were of NYFD personnel involved in rescue operations.
Near the end of the day, something caught his eye. It was a dusty photograph of a mother and her toddler daughter amid the rubble.
Leaving it in place, he blew the dust from that photo. He then took a photo of the photo amid the rubble.
He then took the photo with him and turned it in to authorities. Its precise location today is not known. It may be among the items catalogued that day, or it may have been lost.
His photo of that photo ran in the New York Post the following day. It ran on page 12. He didn’t know the people in the photo.
The photographer was affected by 9/11. He returned from Australia for the 10th Anniversary.
He met many of the firefighters he’d photographed during that 10th Anniversary visit. He got to know some of them, and their stories.
But he still didn’t know anything about the lady and toddler in the photo from the rubble.
He kept looking.
. . .
It turns out that the lady and her husband were out-of-town on vacation on 9/11. She indeed worked in the North Tower, and had lost friends. But they were safe – as was their daughter.
They heard about the photo in the Post. It caused many of their friends to attempt to contact them.
They too wondered about the photographer who’d taken the Post photo. But due to the confusion surround the events of 9/11, they were unable to determine who he was.
They later moved away from NYC. But a copy of that Post photo stayed with them. It served to remind them that life is precious, and that the “small stuff” is exactly that – small, and not really important.
Each year, the lady used the Post photo on Facebook. It was her way of giving thanks for life, as well as a tribute to lost friends.
And she still wanted to know who’d taken that photo of her photo.
. . .
The photographer continued to search. And eventually, fate was kind. He found the picture the lady had posted – his picture.
He also found out she’d been looking for him, and that she and her family wanted to meet him.
The photographer traveled from Australia to Florida, where the lady and her family now live. They met in person earlier this year.
Afterwards, the photographer and the lady’s family traveled to NYC, and visited the 9/11 memorial.
. . .
Fox News has a story today giving more details than my bare-bones account above. IMO, it’s certainly worth a read.
If you read it, though, you might want to have a tissue handy. There’s a chance you might need one.
Category: Who knows
I’m glad she wasn’t at work that day and I’m glad she and the photographer met at last. That’s good stuff. As I am accustomed to saying, one thing leads to another around here and this story returned my thoughts to the firemen who raced to the WTC on 9-11, many soon realizing they weren’t going home but going into that inferno nevertheless. 343 NYC firemen were lost that day. I can still here the chirping of their personal body alarms emanating from the rubble. It was captured on a video and, until today, it has probably been two years since I last viewed it. Watching it and listening to those chirps elicits incredible awe and, at the same time, generates a profound sadness.
While renewing my acquaintanceship with the gut wrenching sights, sounds, and stories of 9-11 and the Twin Towers, I came upon something I had never seen. It is posted on a FB site dedicated to the 343 NYPD firefighters who gave their lives saving others. It concerns an actor, a fellow I instantly recognize but whose name I never remember. I have always loved the guy. He was “Mr. Pink” in Reservoir Dogs and Carl Showalter in Fargo, among other great roles. Anyway, his pic is on that website b/c he showed up an 9-12-01 to volunteer to search for firemen and others. It turns out that before he became an actor, he was a NYC fireman for four years. His station was out of Little Italy. He kept his trip to NY quiet. It wasn’t a PR stunt and he wanted no press. He granted no interviews. And he wasn’t there for a photo shoot either. He spent some three days at Ground Zero, searching with other firefighters amid the incessant chirping. Nis name, by the way, is Steve Buscemi.
Pretty sure the actor in question was Steve Buscemi. His actions after 9/11 made the rounds on various news outlets last year.
You didn’t read my last line.
Yeah, I missed that last sentence. Mea culpa.
Funny how you never see the videos of planes hitting the towers anymore, of people jumping to escape the inferno, their exploded bodies on the street, muslims celebrating and dancing in the streets…
It is just an unexplained tragedy…
by now this administration probably describes it as “workplace violence”.
If you go to Dachau there is a whole wall decorated by phrases in various languages,all meaning “Never again.” It also has Santayana’s phrasing of the famous quote “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” It has taken us less than two decades to effectively paying only lip service to the fallen,and to having forgotten who the real enemy is.
Damned. It got dusty in here quick.
Thanks for posting this story Hondo. As the 15th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, it’s a reminder than 9/11 was a seminal event for so many people in so many ways. We will never forget.
This (mostly forgotten) story reminds us all of the bravery and sacrifice of our brothers and sisters.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44459345/ns/us_news-9_11_ten_years_later/t/kamikaze-f–pilots-planned-ram-flight/#.V7oIq5grKUk
Funny; I just now finished cleaning up and yet it’s all dusty again. Must be a bad air filter or something.
Not to take away from NYFD’s losses on 9/11, over 70 police officers died too.
“Some run from danger, others run towards it”
https://www.odmp.org/search/incident/september-11-terrorist-attack
I wonder if the BLM turds remember this…nah, they’d probably applaud it.
No, no one can take away from the sacrifices made and I do not forget about the Port Authority and NYPD police officers who perished. There was something that affected me about the NYFD. Maybe it was that so many knew that they weren’t getting out alive but moved into the building and up anyway. Maybe it was the calm voices of the firefighters over the radio as they worked to save others. Maybe it was that chirping from the body alarms announcing their lifeless presence in the ruins. I don’t know, but I stand in awe of them all.
I spent some time in NYC after 9/11, and one day had a NYPD LT as a driver/guide/other. He had been on duty that day at City Hall, and was almost killed twice as he moved towards the site. Both times because a tower came down as he moved towards it. He survived both by luck and because others pulled him into shelter as they came down.
I will never forget watching NYFD do search and recovery operations there, even as the boots on their feet started to melt and come apart because of the temperatures below them — but they kept searching. Things were such that for a good while, the searchers were given new boots at the start of each day/shift because they were destroyed by the end of shift. Sometimes before.
Never forget.
Courageous men and women going into an environment which they had to know could easily, and probably would result in their death. Yet … they went in.
THEIR safe space was their bravery, honor and integrity.
We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men and women stand ready to go in harm’s way on our behalf.
I am humbled by men and women such as these.
So many victims, so many stories… I know many personally impacted by that day. I interviewed for a job with a couple of those killed in one of the planes, my brother in law was supposed to be with them on that trip but could not go. They took a new hire along, a young mother who my bride to be knew…
15 years later, and it is just as raw an open wound today as it was then.
Every year, I visit this blog called Metro Dad. His best friend died on 9/11. On 9/11, he publishes a letter to Andy.
Every year, I wait to read it.
Every year, i think about the many I did not know who perished.
And each time I fly over NYC, I am reminded of what a small space that tragedy occurred in. It is mind boggling that more did not perish.
It will always be raw for the people who are the survivors and for those left behind.
As we age our circles get ever smaller– and we learn that although not then end– we are indeed ever closer to our own mortality as each anniversary approaches and I try to make every day a good day.