What I Will Never Forget About My Time in New York City After 9/11
I will never forget:
Pat and I staring at our phones as we desperately tried to get through to our son, Adam, who was living in New York and whose job as a financial news reporter frequently took him to the World Trade Center…and how we cried tears of relief when we learned at 2 pm that day that he was safe.
I will never forget:
Receiving a call from Sharon, the Associate HR Director at Reuters, one of my consulting clients at that time. Hearing Sharon’s anguish about how to manage the unfolding crisis at Reuters: several employees were missing; many others were searching for family members and friends. Everyone was traumatized. To make matters worse, Monica Albano, the HR Director, was stranded in San Francisco. Although Sharon was only asking for advice, I quickly offered to drive to New York City as soon as possible to help with their relief effort. She readily accepted.
I will never forget:
Driving across Pennsylvania on I 80. Whenever I stopped for gas, others would share their stories about trying to get back home to New York. Because no planes were allowed to fly, we drove cars, many of them rented, across the USA in a caravan of fear and trepidation.
I will never forget:
Fearing what I would find once I got to New York City. As I crossed into Manhattan, I stopped to see why a crowd was gathering in front of the St. James Theater near Broadway. There on the street were Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were performing songs from their Broadway hit, The Producers. I was delighted to learn that the resilient spirit of New York City was still alive and well.
I will never forget:
Seeing thousands of photos of missing people posted on poles and windows throughout the city. Even four days after the attack, families held out hope that their loved ones would turn up in one of the local hospitals.
I will never forget:
Arriving at Reuters office in Times Square and meeting with my friend, the CEO of Reuters of America, Phil Lynch. Phil described how exhausted and mentally drained he was from the experience of the past few days. He had spent the first night after September 11 in his office trying to verify where everybody in the company was. Who was accounted for and who was missing? Which managers were stranded at airports throughout the world, and who would be able to get back soon? Meanwhile, almost everyone in the company had to step up and perform as a leader. Not only were the employees traumatized by the events of September 11, but they also were trying to get their business up and running. Reuters is one of the major suppliers of information to the stock exchange. Without their information, the stock exchange was not going to be able to reopen.
I will never forget:
Phil asking me if I could work with Sharon to develop a plan to help their traumatized workforce. We quickly mobilized a group of volunteer therapists to provide grief and trauma counseling.
I will never forget:
Experiencing the fear, exhaustion, and confusion of the people I saw in crisis counseling sessions. Parents did not know whether to come into work or to stay home with their children who were so worried about them. People feared that further attacks would occur, and that Times Square would be targeted. Several people grieved the loss of family members, friends, and work associates.
I will never forget:
Hearing a story from the head of security at Reuters who had been near the World Trade Center when the planes struck. He saw the towers fall. Covered in ash, he ran all the way back to Time Square to be sure to be available at Reuters to help establish a disaster plan.
I will never forget:
Debriefing with a manager who was supposed to be at the top of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. The day before, he had developed a toothache and set up an appointment with his dentist for the morning of September 11. Knowing his ticket would be available, he gave it to one of his teammates who subsequently died in the attack.
I will never forget:
Talking to a Japanese employee of a Reuters affiliate. For two weeks after the disaster, she was afraid to leave her apartment. She thought that since she was Japanese, the attack would remind people of Pearl Harbor and that she would be blamed for the attack on the World Trade Center.
I will never forget:
Sitting with Phil Lynch and Monica Albano as they met with two families who had lost their sons in the attack. One family, from Great Britain, seemed to accept their terrible loss. The other, a single mother who was a refugee from Russia, wanted to continue to search for weeks in every hospital in the area to find her only child. Both Monica and Phil were able to provide an unbelievable sense of comfort to those grieving families.
I will never forget:
Waking each morning and sitting at a local Starbucks writing email dispatches back home to my Leaders Connect community to keep them informed about what I was experiencing in New York City. (Unfortunately, I have lost all of those emails. If any of you still have them on your computer, please let me know)
I will never forget:
My experiences in New York City in the weeks and months after September 11. I thank Phil Lynch and Monica Albano for giving me the opportunity to work with them during one of the most traumatic times in our lives. I thank them for their continued friendship for the past 20 years.