I just got home from a funeral celebrating the life of dear friend Nancy Ford. Born on June 28, 1930 in Allegheny, PA, she was just a few months older than Mom. She died September 19, 2014, following a months long battle with cancer. It was very aggressive, as it was only diagnosed in the spring. After one round of chemotherapy, she chose not to undergo more treatment simply to prolong her life a few more months. Her quality of life was probably better as a result. Her suffering was certainly briefer.
I first met Nancy and her husband Jim in 1998, when I moved in with Mom and began volunteering with Meals on Wheels. They had become friends of Mom and Dad through the organization. When Dad passed away in February 1998, Jim took over as treasurer. Jim subsequently passed away in September 2003, just short of eleven years ahead of Nancy.
Nancy was always a hard worker, whether it was with her bird farm and bird band business, or whether it was volunteering for her bird club, Meals on Wheels or her church. She truly had a servant's heart, and will be truly missed by family, friends and church alike.
That didn't mean she didn't find time for fun. She enjoyed bingo at the senior center, knitting her neverending afghans--many which found their way into "opportunity drawings" at the annual Meals on Wheels dinners--going out to lunch with friends, traveling to Washington and other parts of the country to visit family--although not as much after Jim's death--and many other activities that I'll never know about.
She had a very dry sense of humor, and wasn't shy about sharing it. She had her email list, to which she often sent fun items she received from others or found on the internet. One way another friend realized something was wrong was when she stopped getting those emails. That seems to be the wave of the future for so many deaths in the 21st century.
You will be missed,Nancy.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
9/11
Thirteen years ago today this nation endured the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. In a coordinated attack by al-Qaeda, four commercial flights originating out of the East Coast were highjacked. The first plane struck the North tower of the World Trade Center's twin towers in NYC, followed 15 minutes later by a second plane going into the South tower. A half hour after that, the third plane crashed into the Pentagon. Only passenger intervention caused the final plane to crash a half hour later into a Pennsylvania field instead of its intended Washington DC target. Nearly 3,000 people died as a direct result of the attacks, the vast majority in the crashes and subsequent collapse of the twin towers.
I left for work that morning barely aware from early radio reports that the first plane had crashed. Mom woke shortly after that to the news, and had the TV on all day as the story unfolded. By the time I got to work, which was a second job that I jobshared between the environmental lab I work for and one of our clients at the time, the other planes had crashed and the country's confusion, fear and anger were reflected in media coverage of unfolding events. Fred and I were riveted by the events being broadcast. Needless to say, not a lot got done in terms of production.
Fred viewed events through a unique perspective. His family had left Iran after the Shah was deposed in 1979. Most ended up in America. Fred had an architectural/banking background before he became an environmental consultant. He had married an America, and had a couple of school age sons by the time I met him. He was horrified by 9/11, and immediately understood the implications of what had happened, both in terms of American response as a nation, and the potential backlash of individuals against members of the Islamic faith--or those perceived to be followers of Islam. He was right about that. There were attacks that happened to people in the days following 9/11, both here and abroad.
Our nation was forever changed by 9/11. People either knew people that died, or knew people who knew other people that died. My niece Brianna was in Kindergarten, One of her classmates had an aunt aboard one of the doomed flights--three of the four flights were headed to LAX. Her class learned a harsh lesson in geopolitics, life and death because of that day. As a nation, we have become very focused on security in public places, particularly airports and other transportation. We have fought wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts of the world in an attempt to "degrade and destroy" al-Qaeda , the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. We are currently involved in air strikes against ISIS (aka ISIL, IS and the Islamic State).
There is no easy solution to any of this. For every Osama bin Laden that you kill, another radical jihadist springs up. For every dictatatorship you topple, another organization is willing to fill that power vacuum. ISIS has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria, and wants to establish a global caliphate. They have killed many Christians, Jews and moderate Muslims, and persecuted many more.
In the meantime, we pause today to remember the victims of 9/11 in ceremonies across the country. The most profound, as always, is at the memorial that has been established at Ground Zero in NYC. Names are read, and bells toll for the times of the crashes and the collapse of the twin towers. At night, twin beams of light cut powerfully into the night sky, representing the site of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
We will never forget.
I left for work that morning barely aware from early radio reports that the first plane had crashed. Mom woke shortly after that to the news, and had the TV on all day as the story unfolded. By the time I got to work, which was a second job that I jobshared between the environmental lab I work for and one of our clients at the time, the other planes had crashed and the country's confusion, fear and anger were reflected in media coverage of unfolding events. Fred and I were riveted by the events being broadcast. Needless to say, not a lot got done in terms of production.
Fred viewed events through a unique perspective. His family had left Iran after the Shah was deposed in 1979. Most ended up in America. Fred had an architectural/banking background before he became an environmental consultant. He had married an America, and had a couple of school age sons by the time I met him. He was horrified by 9/11, and immediately understood the implications of what had happened, both in terms of American response as a nation, and the potential backlash of individuals against members of the Islamic faith--or those perceived to be followers of Islam. He was right about that. There were attacks that happened to people in the days following 9/11, both here and abroad.
Our nation was forever changed by 9/11. People either knew people that died, or knew people who knew other people that died. My niece Brianna was in Kindergarten, One of her classmates had an aunt aboard one of the doomed flights--three of the four flights were headed to LAX. Her class learned a harsh lesson in geopolitics, life and death because of that day. As a nation, we have become very focused on security in public places, particularly airports and other transportation. We have fought wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts of the world in an attempt to "degrade and destroy" al-Qaeda , the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. We are currently involved in air strikes against ISIS (aka ISIL, IS and the Islamic State).
There is no easy solution to any of this. For every Osama bin Laden that you kill, another radical jihadist springs up. For every dictatatorship you topple, another organization is willing to fill that power vacuum. ISIS has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria, and wants to establish a global caliphate. They have killed many Christians, Jews and moderate Muslims, and persecuted many more.
In the meantime, we pause today to remember the victims of 9/11 in ceremonies across the country. The most profound, as always, is at the memorial that has been established at Ground Zero in NYC. Names are read, and bells toll for the times of the crashes and the collapse of the twin towers. At night, twin beams of light cut powerfully into the night sky, representing the site of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
We will never forget.
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