9/11 Memorial in New York City. Picture taken by Petr Kratochvil. Picture was obtained from PublicDomainPictures.net.
Transcript
Jim: The boat brought us as far as spring street or 14th street I don’t remember exactly and we stepped off the boat onto the promenade and people that weren’t coming from the site were walking around looking like it was business as usual which was very disorienting for us. We found an open store and bought some food, went to my apartment which was on west 15th street at that point and ate a little something, tried to wipe the ash off of us. I think we both showered. Ellen went to find her daughter and I hunkered down. I wasn’t sure what to do. Phone lines were not working well. I did call my mother and let her know that I was alive. Then I tried to locate two friends who worked even closer to the towers than I. Their lines were down.
Later that evening I walked outside and the barricades were up at 14th street, and Manhattan was cordoned off from 14th street down. St. Vincent’s hospital was on 12th and 7th and I was walking around 14th and 7th and a doctor spotted me and said “you look like you need help.” The doctor brought me into the unconcernedly empty emergency room. There was one guy, a fireman who was in the cubicle next to me. They were rinsing out his eyes and he was screaming his lungs out. What they said is the reason that they thought it was so empty was not many people survived so there was not a whole lot of people that were injured. They treated my eyes which did indeed sting badly and sent me home probably with a tranquilizer. As the day and the evening wore on I found out a little bit more about what had happened.
Next morning I was able to get my car out of the garage which was right on 15th street, picked my mother up in Yonkers and head up to Schoharie. I had a good friend at that point. Bud was helping at the house; he was painting interiors. He was a retired Episcopal Priest and a good friend of the family. Over the next few days Bud spent a lot of time with me, helping me not hate which is a difficult thing to do when you’re in a situation like that. He helped me understand that the reason that this had happened is because the people who did it were jealous of the fact that we have an open society that welcomed everyone and they wanted to make us hate like they did. He pointed out to me that hate is just a choice and worked with me very diligently for a few days until I calmed down and understood that I didn’t have to make that choice.
Schoharie was my refuge, I stayed here for a couple of weeks, got my balance back and rebuilt my strength. Found my friends who were missing, they found us. Got family together and were able to start to process the whole thing. I’m very thankful for having this refuge here.
The day will stay with me forever. Watching people catapult out of the buildings was probably the hardest part. I saw 3 or 4 people jump from very high floors. Knowing that they went through that agony is just heartbreaking. If I have one thing to share from my experience it was what Bud our retired minister taught me that hate is only a choice. We are better than that and we don’t have to make that choice.