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September 16, 2001
Suite
112
76 North Maple Ave.
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
U.S.A.
Dear Friends:
Thank you. I am sorry that I have not been
able to respond to your many messages from around the world; my
family has needed my special attention.
We are okay.
My daughter, Genevieve, who turned 24 on
Wednesday, commutes most days with her mother, Judith, from
Ridgewood, NJ via train and the path subway to the WTC where they
arrive at 9 a.m. and walk to their offices a few blocks away. On
Tuesday, they took a different path.
My daughter, Gwendolyn, 20, was safe at home
sleeping late.
In New York, they heard the roar of the
planes coming in.
Judith’s offices in southern Manhattan
were then evacuated and she was safely out of the neighborhood
walking on the streets to rendezvous at Genevieve’s office when
the towers collapsed.
They met at Genevieve’s office which was
then itself evacuated. With
a million other New Yorkers they walked north and with the help of
total strangers giving them rides, they made their way to the George
Washington Bridge on 178th Street.
At the bridge, a man with a beat up, old
white van stopped and offered rides – twenty people piled in.
Genevieve and Judith sat on each other’s lap in the
passenger’s seat, without seatbelts.
Another stranger gave them rides to their home in Ridgewood.
Ridgewood, New Jersey, is the chief bedroom
community for the Financial District of New York – it was hit
hard.
The principal of the Ridgewood High School
made an announcement during the second period for anyone having a
father, mother or family member working in the WTC to come to his
office immediately. Later,
he announced a roll-call of student’s names summoned to his
office. By the end of
the third period, the scene was horrible.
I am told that there were students who had
both a father and a mother working in the towers.
There was also a Ridgewood family whose
father and two daughters were all working in the WTC when the first
plane hit and they made it home safe.
At about midnight I went to the Ridgewood
train station to pick up Jude’s car. Normally the lot would be
empty at that time. There were many cars there. I suddenly realized
that some of the cars would never be picked up by the people who had
driven there in the morning.
On Wednesday, the direction of the wind
changed and the smell of smoke filled my office.
I was to attend a United Nations reception
on Tuesday night and I had wrangled invitations for both my
daughters to attend with me. Genevieve
was to carry her camera with her that morning to get pictures of the
celebrities. But on Monday night -- over her objections --
I insisted that I keep the camera so I could get a new
battery and more film.
Just after the first plane
hit, Genevieve called me on her cell phone to complain that if only
she had her camera with her she would move up close and take the
best shots of her life. I
told her to stay away. She
did. Then the buildings collapsed.
Genevieve was also worried about one of her
friends who then phoned on Wednesday night while she was trying to
celebrate her 24th birthday dinner.
The friend was okay.
He told her, “When the windows of my
office were all blown out, I took it as a hint that I could go
home.”
In a few weeks Genevieve will be fulfilling
her long dream of going to live in Rome for a year.
In a few weeks Gwendolyn will be studying
for her Junior Year Abroad at the London School of Economics.
Love,
Max
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