Sept 11, 2001

(Community Matters) Sept 11, 2001.  My cell phone went off, it was a private call but I didn’t answer it.  The waiter at Las Manitas called out to the restaurant that a plane had struck the World Trade Center.  Margo Weisz, Kirk Rudy, John Dirvin and I kept meeting and eating, not really believing what the waiter had said.  Another cell phone call from a private number.  The waiter then calls out that another plane had struck another tower.  Oh rats, that private number.  Our mutual friend works in the tower.  I called.  Yes I’d heard.  Okay coming over.  No one had heard from our friend.   Arrived at home of private number.  She’d heard from our friend.  He wasn’t in the tower but on subway over.  He was now at base of tower looking for his employees.  On tv, we see first tower collapse. Can’t reach our friend.  About an hour later he calls, he’d run with hundreds of others as the tower was collapsing, finally settling somewhere in midtown.  Had found all employees but not the artist who was staying in the apartment in the 91st floor.  We subsequently learned he’d died.  We pray for all those lost and we thank God for those who survived.