Ten Years Later, a Different Day

Is today a different day than yesterday? my daughter asked after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. Holly saw our tears. She saw our fears. And while we tried to comfort our children, we grappled with ways to help the families -- our neighbors and our friends -- who lost loved ones that day.

That journey led us to Mexico, where Roberto Espinoza-Rufino was at work driving a cab in Tijuana the day his daughter was born. His wife, Maria, gave birth in another cab, a broken-down junker set on cinder blocks on their land with ocean view. Two toddlers played on the windy hilltop while their mother labored on a mattress thrown on the top of the taxi’s back seat. She gave birth to the girl alone, in this cab they called home.

Two weeks later, family and friends of Douglas MacMillan Cherry worked through a collective grief as volunteers who came to this sun-drenched, littered land by the sea to build a home for the family.

The efforts were part of a cycle of compassion and hope born in part when the Twin Towers fell in New York City.

Our neighbor Doug Cherry was 38 when he died. He enjoyed working with tools and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Newark. His father volunteered with Homes of Hope, the group that builds in Tijuana. Cherry made plans to join his Dad, a trip that did not happen simply because he was at work near the top of the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001.

In a moving testimonial to his life, dozens of friends and family members have since volunteered to complete the work of the Cherrys, working hand-in-hand with the families to build their new homes.

The year we helped the Espinoza-Rufino family, the father cradled his newborn daughter in a yellow blanket during the dedication of their new home. He asked the volunteers to name the child. We suggested Esperanza (Hope), Magdalena Marie, and Marisol (sun and sea), and Andrea (after Andrew, the foreman for Homes of Hope).

“Never in life, have I felt so much happiness,” he said through a translator, selecting the name Andrea Marisol for his daughter. “Thank you for doing the work of God when we so desperately needed it.”

Ten years have passed, a different day than yesterday. And Patch would like you to share your reflections  and how that day affected you. Or share your memories of someone you loved. Or even just memories of the World Trade Center when the buildings were part of the back drop of your life.

We invite you to email or visit Facebook page Patch has created. We encourage you to share your thoughts, memories and photos by posting on our wall – to build a lasting tribute that tells America and the world, New Jersey Remembers 9/11.