Someone I love very much drove an ambulance in NYC back in 2001. He responded on 9/11, and spent the following months working at the site of the former towers.
Although he’s careful with what he shares with us civilians, it’s safe to say that his job became more grotesque and more depressing than any of us could envision.
Yesterday, and still today, I am thinking of my friend, and of all of the rescue workers who went to work hour after day after week after month. They went each day, long after the television stations resumed normal broadcasting schedules. They went day after day, while so many of us resumed our normal every day activities. So many people got tired of seeing the images on television, yet for months these rescue workers were still digging for remains.
The day the towers fell, and on the days and weeks that followed, I was scared for my friend’s safety, but also for his spirit. I imagined that when he came back to the surface he would have hardened and changed. He would have become mean and angry. He never did. Instead, he’s loving and interested and strong, and he loves to laugh. But sometimes he is sad and really really tired.
It’s been 6 years, which feels like a nanosecond one moment and a millennium the next.
Yesterday, and still today, and certainly tomorrow, I hope, for my friend and for yours, that the sadness subsides and the memories lighten.
[tags]September 11, 9/11, tribute, remembering, rescue workers, friendship[/tags]
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