Songwriter Shared Her Song of Comfort With 9/11 Families

The song was already written, it was meant to help the family of a friend heal after losing a loved one to cancer. So when 9/11 hit the U.S. Tricia Greenwood figured it could help the families of 9/11 victims
find peace and solace, too.

"I had this revelation. Three weeks into it of them looking for bodies of loved ones. It brought me to my knees," Greenwood says.

"I was praying about it; 'What can I do? I could give a couple hundred dollars.' Then it came to me, to rewrite that one verse. People could identify with it."

Greenwood who has lived in Cupertino for four years and owns Park Salon in San Jose is no stranger herself to loss–her only son died five
years ago, and by the time she was a young woman both her parents and grandparents were gone.

"I always searched for answers as a young girl, and growing up,"  Greenwood says.

She was a "late bloomer" when it comes to songwriting, but she clearly has a gift, one that she wanted to share with the families of the victims of 9/11, she says.

So the song she wrote to console the family of her friend, Chris Dennison, who died of cancer about a year before 9/11 seemed like it
needed to be shared with other grieving families.

The event "reawakened stuff inside me," she says, and she was in tears every day.

"I just wanted to get a message out there. The people who are gone are gone, it's the people who are left behind who are suffering," Greenwood says.

She tweaked one line, a personal verse in the song for the Dennison family, and got to work getting the song out to 9/11 families.
Greenwood looked up names and contact information, made 400 copies of her song, "In Heaven 9/11" and sent them out.

"Out of all of them, only one made a direct response to me," she says. "As it was a time of grieving, I understand."

The one person who responded to Greenwood was Jennie Farrell, sister to James Marcel Cartier.

"She told me that James was working in the first Tower and he got out safely. He went to look for his sister, Michele, who worked in the second building. The papers say he found her but Jennie told me that he did not find her and then he was never found," Greenwood says.

"Jennie had asked me to come and play the song I wrote for (James') service, but at that time I could not afford the travelling
expenses and gave her and her family my heartfelt condolences."

Greenwood continues to write songs and is working on an album. Also in the works is a plan to have "In Heaven" performed with an orchestra or symphony.

A YouTube video of Greenwood's song is attached to this article and can also be found here.