What Were You Doing?

I was driving in my car, on Columbia Parkway in Cincinnati, specifically, when the radio DJ broke into a song and announced that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I can still remember the unknown chill that ran down my back as I tried to imagine what I thought, like a lot of people, was a small commuter or prop plane that had taken a wrong turn or flown by a new and misguided flight student. Probably nothing.

When I got to work I turned on the TV in my office - a nice perk of being in Communications is there is always a TV around- and saw footage of the first tower that had fallen. News spread quickly and before I knew it there were many of us crowded around my little TV watching the Today Show. And like a dream or movie, we sat and watched the second tower come crashing down on live television. Even seeing it live, it didn't feel real or even viably possible that a plane could take down one of the largest buildings in the world.

My last memory of the towers is a few years before that when I was in Manhattan for a tech seminar and I met up with an old friend that night who took me on a whirlwind tour of NYC. Late that night we stood under the towers and looked up admiring their massiveness, their permanence and the quiet still that surrounded it within a city that is anything but quiet.

I didn't know anyone in those towers that day, nor was I acquainted with anyone on those fatal airlines. But I am proud to be one of 2,996 bloggers across America that will pay tribute on this anniversary to those who perished. I encourage you to click HERE and read more about it.

My tribute is to Jeremiah J. Ahern. A 74 year old auditor with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. He perished on the 86th floor of 2 World Trade Center on September 11.

Jeremiah J. Ahern, a Bronx-born son of Irish immigrants, went to work in 1946 after getting out of the Army and never stopped. He put himself through Baruch College while working for the Post Office. After 10 years at the Post Office, he began a second career at the Internal Revenue Service. And when he retired from there at age 55, he went right back to work at the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

"Dad was a very quiet person, not too outgoing, and he was always concerned he'd have nothing to do in retirement," said Geraldine Ahern Scott, his daughter. Mr. Ahern had an equally unhurried approach to romance. He was 42 when he married his wife, Beatrice. They met at a Roman Catholic singles dance he attended with courtship in mind. "He didn't like dancing," said Mrs. Scott. (excerpt from New York Times)

Jeremiah seemed to me to be a hard worker, a family man. I encourage you to take a moment tomorrow to pray for Jeremiah's family, for the families of the 2,996 that perished, for our government that they will make sound decisions to protect the country, and for those who are still healing five years later.

Thank you for allowing me to give a voice to Victim #616, Jeremiah J Ahern.

*If you are trying to click on the links and they are not opening,

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