Remembering Two Angells Killed on 9/11

I was up early that day. Early enough to watch the second plane hit the second tower. At the time, I was a weekend anchor for the NBC station in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On September 11, 2001, I was supposed to be heading to the airport to fly home for my sister’s San Diego wedding. What I was watching on TV seemed to be just a horrible dream and I remember tears rolling down my face. As I watched the horror unfold, I somehow knew that unspeakable act would hit home. That’s when I got a call from my mother in Los Angeles.

She told me my high school librarian, Lynn Angell, and her husband David, were aboard American Airlines Flight 11 that crashed into the north tower. They were flying to Los Angeles from Cape Cod where they attended a family wedding. The couple, who had been married 30 years, were due at the Emmys. David, an Emmy award winning producer, had been nominated again. He was well known and very well-liked in Hollywood, as the co-creator and executive producer of Frasier.

I hadn’t seen Lynn since high school but her warm smile was hard to forget. I attended a very small school in the San Fernando Valley in L.A., where faculty often felt more like family. Time in the library was special with Mrs. Angell, who was always willing to find you just the right books for that term paper or science project and never seemed too busy to help.

Just five years before they were killed, Lynn and David created The Angell Foundation to support those in need. Philanthropy was essential in their lives and the foundation allowed them to continue extending a helping hand. Lynn left her paid job at my high school to volunteer at a center that serves abused and neglected children. She worked tirelessly on creating a children’s library at the facility.

The more I thought about Lynn’s huge heart, the more I wanted to make a point of never forgetting her. Several days after the attacks I did a news story on a company making memorial bracelets for all 2,977 victims. I decided to order two bracelets with Lynn’s name, one for me and one for my mom who worked with Lynn at the school. Chills went down my spine when I found out the woman taking my order over the phone, just happened to be wearing the very bracelet I wanted: Lynn Angell AA #11. What were the odds? I took that as a wonderful sign that I was doing exactly what I should be doing. Every September 11, for the past ten years, my mother and I have worn those bracelets to honor a woman who touched our lives and countless others.