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In Memoriam, 2026
Everybody knows whenever rain appears, it’s really angel tears. A Personal Choice About 11,000 firefighters and EMS personnel were involved in the World Trade Center response — 121 engine companies, 62 ladder companies, all 5 rescue companies, 6 of 7 squad companies, and 27 chiefs were at the site — including many who were off-duty that day. The interviewer asked Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer, pictured above with his brother Lt. Kevin Pfeifer, how many firefighters refused to go forward into the Towers. Not a one, he said. He also said something in the airing that was, unfortunately, cut from the clip: “Every one had to make a personal choice…” Most of us civilians forget that — one of the many things we take for granted. A new Facebook reel telling the story of FDNY Capt. William F. Burke, Jr., described how he radioed his men from the 27th floor of Tower One, knowing of the collapse of the South Tower, and gave the order for them to evacuate. They were just a few floors below and wanted to wait for him, but he told them he was right behind them with two civilians and would meet them at the rig. He knew the danger — but he made a choice, knowing that the two men had no chance at all without him. Minutes later, along with quadriplegic Ed Bayea and his co-worker and friend Abe Zelmanowitz, Captain Billy Burke — who had everything to live for — died. Because he made a choice, a decision, to be true to himself, twenty-five years ago today. “Dirge Without Music” — Edna St. Vincent Millay I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you. The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love, Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Since 2005, we have included “Dirge Without Music” on our yearly memorial page because it conveys the enormous personal loss of September 11, 2001. At the Yankee Stadium Prayer Vigil on September 23rd, before the final death toll was known, Rabbi Marc Gellman put that grief into words this way:”On that day, six thousand people did not die. On that day, one person died six thousand times.“ Selected Links from Earlier Memorial Pages Clydesdales’ Super Bowl Tribute This video was created soon after 9/11 and profoundly reflects the period. We recommend listening to it to the very end when the music finally stops. This is the “mega-episode” version of the six-part National Geographic documentary. It is such a reminder of what must never be forgotten. Click on the angel to play the song that led directly to naming the restaurant “Windows on the World”. Click here for the story behind the “Angel of Grief Weeping Over the Dismantled Altar of Life.” Click here for the transcript of the Prayer Vigil at Yankee Stadium on September 23, 2001. |
