Continued.......
When they reached the bottom floor, they stepped into ankle-deep water.  She held up her new Banana Republic pants, hoping she wouldn't ruin them in the water.  There were firefighters and policemen on the bottom floor instructing them to go in a direction that seemed to her to be the longer way of getting out of the building.  She found out later they instructed them to go in that direction to keep them from seeing the crushed bodies of those who had jumped from the windows, and parts of bodies.  She noticed a crack in the foundation of the wall when they were in the shopping area of the bottom floor and wondered then "what could have happened to cause this much damage."  She continued with her group of co-workers as at last they stepped out of the building.  She had turned to a co-worker to ask for a cigarette when they heard a loud indescribable noise behind them.  She said she didn't turn to look back, she knew.  She started running.  Ten steps later, glass from a window of the Borders store pushed her with so much force that it sent her sailing.  She was thrown behind a large concrete flowerpot and a metal gate from a store landed on top of her.  Within a minute after the noise, it was pitch black all around her and completely silent.  She felt the gate on top of her and managed to push it forward.  She pushed through debris in the darkness with her hands, struggling to breathe in the thick, dirt filled air.  She turned her head in every direction and couldn't see anything but darkess.  She thought the impact of being thrown forward had knocked her blind.  She cried for help and listened in the darkness and silence as no one answered her calls.  She thought maybe she was the only person that had lived through the collapse.

She wondered if she would ever see her family again.  She wondered if she would ever see again.  She wondered if she would bleed to death from the cuts she felt on her small thin body.  Then she began to see red spots in front of her eyes as she stared into the darkness.  She walked towards the lights through the darkness and the putrid air.  When she reached the source of the lights she found they were from an abandoned police car.  She reached through the broken window, picked up the radio and tried to call for help. 

Jane was the only person the EMS took to St. Vincent's Hospital in the van.  In the emergency room, three doctors worked on her wounds for hours.  There weren't any other patients from the disaster in the emergency room at that time.  They dressed her wounds and gave her stitches in numerous places.  When she reached her room she turned on the television to watch, she was shocked to find out that two airplanes had hit the WTC.
Jane said that the two fellow employees that stopped to help the older woman didn't get out alive.  She went to therapy several times with a group of other survivors.  She has regrouped, she rested and then she came back to NY.  After a few weeks she said that most importantly she realized that she loved herself and life.  Then she realized that she loved NY.  She was staying.  She was a New Yorker.
Flight 93
Photo taken of the Pentagon just moments after the plane hit.
America Weeps
photographed by Bronston Jones

In the days after September 11, the city became covered in missing person fliers.  Soon it rained--the ink began to run, the colors began to fade, and the paper began to tear.  Bronston saw this flier on his first day in New York.

This photograph of the flag 'crying' as an unidentifiable young man's face washes away had become a compelling symbol of America's grief.  Many visitors to the exhibit have compared this image to Arlington's  'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.'   The man in the flier has come to represent all we lost.

As much as this image represents grief and mourning, this flier has also come to represent hope.  Each of the fliers was a sign of hope.  Each of the families hoped with all their heart that someone would recognize the face in the picture as someone they saw on the street.  This family's hope was realized--they found their son.

A few days after this photograph was taken, the young man was found alive and well.  Because of the difficulties communicating in and out of the city, his parents could not contact their son.  After days with no word, his father traveled to NY to report him missing.  Days later, a reporter ran his picture in the newspaper, a policeman recognized him on the street, and they contacted his father.  Their hopes were realized

This is the only flier in this exhibit where this is the case.

This commemorative poster of America Weeps is available for a donation of $15.00

Go to:
http://www.bronston.com/missing/prints/index.htm

Download the printable flyer and please donate.
Memorial Next Page
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