Twenty-five years later, remembering September 11 today still feels impossible to compress into words.
For many of us, the memories remain remarkably vivid. We remember where we were, who we called, and what we feared. Yet September 11 feels different today.
Twenty-five years have passed. Still, certain moments remain frozen in time.
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Remembering September 11 Today Through People
Our own memories come through people.
At the time, our parents lived on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Meanwhile, a friend lived near Tribeca. From her apartment window, she watched the horror unfold.
The World Trade Center also held personal memories for our family. Our parents belonged to the club at Windows on the World. Our family had visited before September 11. Back then, it was a beautiful place, high above Manhattan. People gathered for dinners, conversations, celebrations, and ordinary moments.
After September 11, however, none of those memories felt ordinary again.
Remembering Through Memory
Years later, one image brought that connection back in a different way.
On April 21, 2017, we attended a dramatic presentation and reading at the 9/11 Museum about “The Falling Man.”
This photograph remains one of the most haunting images from that day. Photography was not allowed during the presentation and reading. However, we managed one quick photograph at the beginning.
We remember the white clothing moving in the air as the man fell. His body turned and contorted, his white shirt billowing and flapping furiously around him as he descended. That dramatic re-enactment remained with us today.
The man captured in the famous photograph, taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, has never been definitively identified. However, one leading possibility is Jonathan Briley, who worked at Windows on the World. That possibility made the story especially difficult for us.
Windows on the World was not simply a name I learned after September 11. It was a place my family remembered from before that terrible morning. Suddenly, a place associated with dinners and celebrations carried an entirely different meaning.
Then came the stories of people who almost found themselves there that morning.
Remembering Through Chance
Our cousin planned to attend a technology conference at the World Trade Center. However, he was running late. That delay saved his life.
Another near miss involved a server from a different Signature Group property. He had an interview scheduled at Windows on the World. He was running late too. Because of that delay, he missed the interview and escaped the disaster. As we remembered it, he simply returned to his old job.
Stories like these still stop us in our tracks. We often complain about being late. Yet sometimes, a few minutes can change everything.
Howard Lutnick, who led Cantor Fitzgerald, experienced another extraordinary turn of fate. That morning, he took his five-year-old son to his first day of school. Because of that ordinary parental responsibility, he was not inside the World Trade Center when the plane struck.
His company, however, suffered unimaginable losses. Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees that morning.
One of those losses reached our own offices.
Remembering Through Loss
Back in London, we arrived to a chaotic scene. Our secretary bolted out of the main entrance in tears. She found out her cousin was at work at Cantor Fitzgerald in NYC. Later, she displayed his obituary photograph on her office door. He was very young and, as we remembered, had only recently started his career. That photograph stayed with us. We never forgot his face.
Life is so unpredictable. One person ran late. Another took his child to school. Yet others “showed up” to work, not knowing what would transpire that morning through evil deeds.
The difference between those outcomes remains almost impossible to comprehend. Perhaps that randomness remains among the hardest parts of September 11 to understand. None of these people knew what those few minutes would mean. No one knew an ordinary morning was about to divide countless lives into before and after.
Remembering September 11 Today Differently
Twenty-five years later, the buildings are not what we remember most.
The people are.
Some escaped by minutes. Others never came home. Families answered phones, watched televisions, and desperately waited for news. For thousands of families, that news changed everything.
Most of all, September 11 began as an ordinary morning. People poured coffee. They caught the metro. They went to meetings. Parents dropped children at school. Someone ran late for an interview. One hurried toward a conference. Someone arrived at work exactly when expected. Then, suddenly, ordinary life disappeared.
Perhaps that is why remembering September 11 today still reaches us so deeply. We know now how quickly an ordinary moment can become extraordinary. We also know how a few minutes can separate one life story from another. Therefore, remembering should include more than buildings, photographs, dates, and statistics. It should include the people behind them.
Today, we honour those who died. We remember those who ran toward danger while others desperately tried to escape it. We honour the families who carried unimaginable loss forward and; those who survived because fate placed them somewhere else for just a few minutes.
There may never be an explanation for why one person survived while another did not. Perhaps there does not need to be one. Instead, we can remember how precious ordinary life really is. A school drop-off matters. Family dinner matters. The conversation matters. Even being late can matter.
Twenty-five years later, those ordinary moments may carry the strongest message of all.
Remember the people.
Remember the lives.
And never forget how suddenly everything changed. Watch live Memorial today.1
- Please note this video may not be available after today ↩︎