Never Forget

The father of my children has this tattooed on his arm.

 

We have not been married for many years now, but he is still a HERO, to me.

 

I wrote this post in 2003:

 

This day finds me deeply conflicted. I share a birthday and a point of view with Ghandi. It is a beautiful day, clear blue sky, just as it was on that other September eleventh. The father of my children was in the Towers that morning. Working. Due to a miraculous confluence of events he was thirty feet ahead of the falling debris. He turned around and went back in. We did not hear from him for three days. The children KNEW with a certainty I cannot explain, that he had somehow survived. That he was Working. When the call finally came this is what he said when I asked him what we could do. "Do the work that needs to be done. Kiss the kids for me. I have to go back in and dig." He went back in and hauled more body parts in buckets. Searched futilely for any signs of life. Worked round the clock shifts until he was forced to stop. Took a shower, got a few hours rest. Could barely breathe due to injuries he sustained.... Kept working anyway. Finally accepted the orders to cease the rescue efforts and called in the bulldozers. Kept working anyway. Filled out the paperwork at the doctor's office and waited in line to discover the extent of his own wounds. Went right back to work. Got a new tattoo. It says NEVER FORGET. This is the work he is CALLED to do. It is difficult, dangerous, heart wrenching work. He loves it. If you are wandering through your life doing something you hate, or maybe just tolerate.... coming home and dulling the pain with your drug of choice.... wondering if there is some purpose to life. YES. Whatever it is that you understood you were born to do when you were still too young to "know better".... If somewhere deep in your heart you KNOW are a writer or a painter or a teacher or a healer......maybe a firefighter or an ER doc.... Go forth into the world and "do the work that needs to be done". Ten-four DUDE, you're a HERO! straight up.

 

xox

Comments

[Wendy G.]

What a very touching post!

[Ann]

I loved this post the first time, too.