The seven words and story that I’ll never forget. 12 years ago today — at this very hour — I was headed from Albany to NYC to cover the September 11th attacks. In fact, at this point we didn’t know if they were confirmed attacks. I’m not sure if it was luck or a curse that my photographer and I managed to find the one side street that hadn’t been blocked off. We both said “Let’s go for it.” 45 minutes later we were standing at ground zero. My eyes couldn’t have been bigger. My jaw couldn’t have been dropped wider. People covered in dust, debris everywhere, disbelief just as widespread and a sense of defeat. The next three days were some of the most awful I’d had as reporter. Sure, I had the story — but that was the problem…I had the story.
As I was interviewing a woman on my final day in NYC, she distinctly said that her missing husband — who was among the many buried in the rubble — was probably just waiting to use his cell phone and saving the battery for when he needed it. That, according to her, was the reason she couldn’t get through to him. I almost started crying. In fact, I did…just not while on the story. This was also the first time in my career I’d been speechless. I was 24 years old. In a city of millions and millions of people, this poor woman felt alone and abandoned. The man she loved, the man with whom she made a lifelong commitment, and the soul mate who’s side she swore to stand by forever was gone — for good.
After she uttered those words “he’s probably just waiting to use it,” that was my cue to stop the interview. She knew he wasn’t coming home. But she was not about to let me or anyone else steal any more from her. That tiny piece of hope and long shot that he was alive was all she had left. I always wondered — and still do to this day — how she handled the next few days, weeks and months. I’ve interviewed first ladies and vice-presidents — My reports have shut down ill-run businesses and I even got a railroad company to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in replacing faulty tracks and equipment at crossings. But the one story I remember the most is the “Cell Phone Lady” from 9-11. Do me a favor. Give your significant other, your brother, sister, mother, father –whomever — a kiss and hug today. The only story I really got — and the only one worth remembering while covering the September 11th attacks was one of true love and the senseless separation of a couple. Remember the victims today, but also remember that we as humans are built to love. It’s not something to be taken for granted. 9-11-13
MANY THANKS TO THOSE WHO SHARED THIS.
Post by Mike Doria.
