Remembering Sarah 11 September 2001

Remembering Sarah 11.9.01. I was in Arizona heading for NYC to visit Sam on that bright and brutal Tuesday morning and arrived in the smoky, gritty city a few days later. On that first evening we looked at photos taken when Sam and Jodi hosted a party a week earlier and I admired the lovely English rose, Jodi's new friend Sarah, also a recent arrival in the city. Not long afterwards there was a knock on the door. It was Sarah's husband who came to tell them that his young bride had been there on that terrible morning-wrong place, wrong time - one of so many stories. I still think about her.

30 hours in America 10-11 September 2001

I had a great day on Monday 10th and was pretty bubbly when I rang my son Sam in New York that evening. It was the third day of my 6 weeks in the States. I was looking forward to spending 2 weeks with Sam and Jodi in their apartment in New York after my West Coast trip and after that I had another tour booked to see the autumn colours in the east of the continent, travelling from Boston up to Quebec, and finishing in Washington before a few more days in NYC.

The day began with a dawn flight in a hot air balloon over the Arizona Desert. I had never been up close to a balloon before so it was interesting to watch all that had to be done to get it afloat. Then it was quite a sensation to be standing in a wicker basket suspended underneath a bag of hot air and floating oh so gently and peacefully (despite the roar of the gas burners) while enjoying a bird's view of the desert with its growth and fauna so different from those in Australia. You get a bit rushed around on these tours and later that morning we were in Monument Valley. Oh, the thrill of seeing the weird rock formations which figured in the background of all those Westerns we watched at the Shenton Park Matinees on Saturday afternoons! Then on to the Grand Canyon where I experienced another first with a helicopter flight over that amazing and beautiful water-carved valley.

Guess what? I said to Sam on the phone that night from Sedona, Arizona and told him of my great day. Guess what? he said and told me he had watched Lleyton Hewitt beat Pete Sampras in the final of the US Open the night before.

Before retiring I rang home. Robert seemed subdued and didn't enthuse as much as I expected him to and this was the first time we had spoken since I left home. And then he told me. The benign lump he had had removed last week was not benign and he had received a diagnosis of Lymphoma. The doctor said there was no need at all for me to come home early. He would die with, not of, this disease and there was no need to start treatment in a hurry.

At breakfast the next morning, that blue, bright and brutal Tuesday 11th, I was a bit miserable and tired after not sleeping well. At the same time Sam was receiving a call from his friend Cameron in London, overhead tv cameras were turning on in our hotel dining room and minutes later Robert back in Perth was receiving a call from Cameron. Thousands of miles away people knew what was happening before many New Yorkers and it was Cam who was to tell Sam what was happening a few minutes' walk from his office. Sam asked Cam to ring us at home in Perth (he forgot I was in the States) to tell us he was ok and then went to look out the window just in time to see the second tower collapsing. Robert had gone to bed and was confused to hear Cam ringing from London to say that Sam was ok!

I had checked out of my room and so could not use the phone there. I had to rush around looking for coins or a phone card so Icould ring Sam to make sure he was ok. I couldn't get through and had to get on the coach and travel to our next stop before I could call and be assured that he and Jodi were ok. I have some purple beads - uncut amethysts I think they are- which I purchased later that morning at a touristy store called Danny's Wigwam. Right inside the door there was a large sign which said 'Your husband just called and said you can buy whatever you like today' so I bought my 9/11 beads and I love them. Although it was a terrible day to me they somehow represent hope.

10 years on. Reminiscences of America in September 2001

I was part of a tour in the Western states and Wednesday 12th found us in Las Vegas which was not a place I wanted to see but part of the tour. We were lucky to get hotel rooms, even though they had of course been booked previously, as apparently no one is allowed to force guests to leave who have nowhere to go. With all air traffic closed and no  hire cars available, there were many who fitted into this category. I'm pretty sure my room was actually a staff bedroom. All over town the neon signs proclaiming 'In God We Trust' were a bizarre contradiction of the philosophy of the casinos displaying them. Here too I saw for the first time the extraordinary plethora of stars and stripes on cars and trees and dogs wearing bandanas.

There was a very moving and contrasting  time the next night in Utah at a Mormon farm where the family entertained us over dinner with music and dancing. Their rendition of "How Great Thou Art' was beautiful and unquestionably sincere.

As that week went on I was discomfited by tee shirts bearing aggressive  images of the bald eagle depicted as a threatening and belligerent Uncle Sam but deeply touched by the story of women who had lost husbands or children on the 11th who made plans to travel together to Afghanistan to meet women  'on the other side' to acknowledge shared grief and loss..

When flights were permitted again I flew from San Francisco to NYC on what I think was the same flight as one of those doomed a week earlier. After touching down at Kennedy Airport the captain's 'Welcome to New York' was answered with loud applause. This was, I supposed, a tribute to both the flight crew and the city.

In downtown New York there was still a pall of smoke and, unnervingly, a lot of grit. (Did that grit contain human bone dust? I wondered.) And there were shrines everywhere with framed photographs, messages, flowers and candles. Unlike roadside crosses which mark traffic deaths people were unable to  place tributes at the site so these tended to be outside places of work and of course apartment blocks.  In the foyer of Sam and Jodi's apartment where I stayed there was one for a 23 year old girl from the floor above them. From all these shrines there was an all pervading smell of candle wax which reminded me of Catholic Cathedrals where people pay to light candles.

It was said that for a while in New York the traffic was calmer and people were kinder and I suppose you could say it was a good time to visit from that point of view. In the famous Macy's Department Store business was so slow that the girls in the cosmetic department begged me to let them give me free facials and makeovers.

As I walked the city streets over the next 2 weeks I couldn't miss the Fire Stations as of course large numbers of fire fighters lost their lives too and there were tributes in the hundreds. Many  of the big churches and cathedrals held funeral services for highly ranked fire officers and I saw a lot of ribbon and brass. One day near the WTC site I watched a squad of men heavily clothed with protective gear proceeding to their shift at the scene - their duty not one of rescue but recovery of remains. I think every shift was applauded as they went on and off by the appreciative  onlookers.

The police were certainly twitchy. Walking down the sidewalk one day I must have put my hand up rather quickly to brush something off the side of my face and I was alarmed to say the least when I realised a policeman walking towards me had a very strong reaction to my movement. He didn't pull a gun or anything but he certainly looked alerted. It was just for a fraction of a second but I felt a little shaken. Bewilderingly though at the ferry terminal there was a very large back pack left in the ladies' washroom and I struggled to find anyone who would take any interest.

So many tourist attractions were closed and not for just a week. The Empire State Building, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, the Mayflower in Boston, ferries going anywhere near the Statue of Liberty, roads around the Hoover Dam, and streets surrounding the White House are some I remember and there were no joy rides in the air anywhere in the country for days. I was glad I had had  my dawn balloon  flight over the Arizona desert and a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon just the day before the attacks.

When eventually I was able to do a Harbour Tour by ferry  I tried unsuccessfully to mentally fit images  I had seen of the Twin Towers into the gaping maw where the WTC buildings had been. One of the missing buildings  was a hotel where I had been supposed to stay at the start of my next tour and this was a  very startling moment for me. So was the sight of barges plying the water between Manhattan and Staten Island which carried everything from the site to a place where they were to be sifted and examined with all care and respect, a process to take years. I was a little chagrined when the ferry tour commentator announced a minute's silence when we were in  the appropriate position in the harbour and then proceeded to play an American anthem. This is not my idea of silence.

I attended 2 Memorial services. One was in the San Francisco City Hall and I left after an hour or so which was not as long as I had spent queuing to get in. Waffle from people representing all the interest groups you could ever think of. I'm sure one of them was Animal Rights. The other was in New York and was hosted  by the ANZ and US governments. At least there were some readings and prayers and singing and it was good to see Jenny Shipley (NZ) and Alexander Downer (Aus) there. I don't know why but it was.

And what to say about Sarah whom I never knew? She was a pretty face I saw in Sam and Jodi's photos. It was very likely the last picture taken of her as 3 days later she attended a training seminar for her first job in the US.  What an exciting prospect it must have been for this young English woman to be in the heady atmosphere of the 102nd floor of one of the twin towers even just for a day. But it was the wrong day.