Smoke collapsing buildings

and too many other horrendous images to recount from 911. 

I vividly recall being at the office and hearing there had been a fire at the Twin Towers in NYC.  All of us were calling everybody we could think of to get an update on friends and family members safety.  Those calling NYC were not able to get through on cell phones.  My brother was in a meeting at a location off-site and I remember being particularly worried about his safety until we finally connected over the phone. 

One of my younger year high school classmates was fortunate enough to escape the Twin Towers on that fateful day and their family had already been through a lot of challenges having lost their dad.    So they received good news but countless families and friends, like Gordy’s, received the worst news possible that Gordy was probably not alive.   I even heard he had called his Mom after the first tower collapsed, so she had hope followed by dread and countless other emotions as a result of the Twin Towers collapse.  Any parent who has lost a child can relate to her feelings of loss, sorrow, anger, anguish and grief.

We all are going to die someday, but for anyone to die before their time is tragic under any circumstances (911, illness, highway accident or otherwise).  It affects their loved ones for days, weeks, and years at every birthday, anniversary, and important holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, and New Years.  This is just the tip of the iceberg for those people experiencing grief.   Everyone grieves differently and children even grieve in a unique manner that is distinct when compared to adults. 

So how do we make sense of 911 and other tragedies of lives ended prematurely and the loss lived through daily by those people still alive?  It is complicated.  One person will throw themselves into their work while another person will take a vacation for a few days and still another individual will move to another city or state and remove as many memories as she can of this person no longer involved in her daily life.  Like snowflakes, people grieve in ways as unique as their personalities and lives allow. 

It is vital for those greiving to have family and friends they can call even in the middle of the night while they are crying, remembering, lonely, missing the person they have lost, having to eat alone for the first time in many years, and now doing everything possibly as one person instead of two or as a family with one less member .   

Hopefully we do not require people grieving to stop remembering the memories that make them giggle, smile or even cry in loving remembrance of that special person in their lives.  People contribute greatly to our daily quality of life and enhance our experiences as human beings. 

So today I make a tribute to everybody lost too early by their friends and family members.  This blog is in remembrance of all of the people who are no longer on this earth and have greatly inspired and loved any of us still here.   Written, copyrighted and all rights reserved 2007 by Sherrie Hartzell, licensed real estate salesperson in Virginia with Keller Williams Preferred Realty-Stafford, VA.