A Bizarre 9/11 Connection

In the days immediately following the 2001 terrorist attacks, I quickly tried to think of anyone I knew who might have been in or anywhere near the World Trade Center that fateful Tuesday morning. One woman I know, an entertainer who performs at corporate parties, leaped to mind because she might have been down there interviewing for a gig at a Christmas office party, as such functions are planned well in advance. I called her on September 12 and left a message asking if she was alright; she got back to me two days later, assuring me that the terrorists didn't get her.

But the most bizarre thing occurred when I remembered that another friend of mine, a young woman who was in a writer's group that I belonged to at the time, was married to someone who worked in the financial district; they had just recently celebrated their wedding anniversary, in fact. I called her and left a message in which I asked about him, and her husband got back to me to tell me he was alright.

Here's the bizarre part; her father turned out to be a Port Authority employee in the World Trade Center. He was killed when the North Tower fell - one of 84 Port Authority employees to perish that day.

Very unsettling . . ..