THE SHOCK AND DISBELIEF OF 9/11 hasn’t lessened in eight years.
Living in Washington at the time, Miss Jo and Jeff got caught up in the aftermath.
That morning, Jeff dropped Miss Jo off at the U.S. Capitol just as it was being evacuated in a frenzy, out of fear that Flight 93 was heading for the domed building. As we all know, the San Francisco-bound plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers wrestled with the terrorist hijackers.
It’s hard to fathom the bravery that day among the many heroes, including the flight attendants and pilots.
For Miss Jo, the only counterweight to 9/11 anniversaries is her close friend Brenda’s birthday—- and Ethiopian New Year’s.
Brenda’s an American Airlines flight attendant with 20+ years of service, who also lived as a child in Ethiopia.
So on 9/11, Miss Jo wishes Brenda happy birthday, happy Ethiopian New Year’s and lights a candle for all flight attendants past and present.
Above, a snap taken in 1999 of two of Miss Jo’s favorite flight attendants, her mom and Brenda.
Photo by Miss Jo
3 Comments
Jomom,
I love my birthday greeting! Thank you so much for that and for the beautiful tribute to the flight attendants and pilots that we all lost on that day.
We did celebrate my birthday in style…we had an Ethiopian feast at Mom’s! Even had a surprise visit from John and Ariel who made it all the way to Houston from Half Moon Bay to celebrate with us
Happy Ethiopian New Year’s to you, as well. Did you hear that a group biked (I think) from Newark airport to SFO to commemorate the heroes of Flight 93? I was melacholy all day yesterday. And the thing that amazes me is I have a whole new crop of students this year who were too young 8 years ago for 9/11 to really leave an impression…
nice photo, Miss Jo. I didn’t know about Brenda’s childhood. Pass along this link to her http://projectpencilcase.org/ — It’s for a charity my friend Arabella (who also lived in Ethiopia as a child) started. Reminds me of cuaderno day of course…