Remembering 9/11.

Sept. 17, 2011
After eating dinner at Chili's on this busy Saturday, the four of us walked around the "Mommy park," a city walking trail. Since we were in the neighborhood, we also paid a visit to that city's new fire station with its 9/11 tribute.

On Sept. 11 we weren't able to be there for the community ceremony at the new firehouse, but we still wanted to see the tribute.

The centerpiece is this beam from one of the World Trade Center towers. It was incredible to stand (again) next to part of that WTC building. And it's unifying to think of all the communities, like ours, that are using the detritus of that awful day to represent our nation's resilience and strength.

I remember.

 On this, the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, we remember those lost

at the Pentagon:

 (from our visit to the Pentagon Memorial, July 10, 2010)

at the World Trade Center:

 (antenna tower from WTC north tower, from our visit to the Newseum in Washington, DC, July 13, 2010)

and aboard United 93:

 (part of United 93 fuselage, from our visit to the Newseum, July 13, 2010)

And as I've done every year since 2006, I'm taking a moment to remember Deepa K. Pakkala:

Five years ago, I signed up with Project 2,996, an effort to memorialize each of the 9/11 victims. The name assigned to me was Deepa's. She was working on the 99th floor of the north tower when the plane hit.

My thoughts from that original post still apply today:

When I think about the 2,996 people who died in the attacks, I'm overwhelmed. It's hard to grasp such a big number. When I scroll through the unbearably long list of victims at the 2996 site, the names begin to blur. The pain represented by those names is enormous. It's too much for me to process--even five years later. 

But today I can pause to feel the enormity of this loss. I can picture a man holding his baby girl, desperately missing his sweet wife. By reading online tributes, I can listen in as Deepa's friends recall her giving spirit. I can imagine the tears of those who loved her. And I can cry right along with them.

I pray that her loved ones have found comfort and peace, and I especially pray that Trish will feel her mother's love every day.

I will never forget September 11, 2001, and I pledge to always remember Deepa K. Pakkala.

Vacation 2010: DC - Natural History Museum, National Archives, Pentagon Memorial.

By the time we took the Metro back to DC, the rain had stopped. We had free time until our reservations at 4 at the National Archives, so we took a gander at the Museum of Natural History.

We didn't have a ton of time, but we were able to make a quick sweep through the dinosaur area.
Being here led to some Night at the Museum 2 flashbacks!

We had barely scratched the surface at the museum, but we had tickets for another destination across the street.
My big advice for folks traveling to DC in peak seasons: Reserve, reserve, reserve! Book everything you can in advance. We booked our visit at the National Archives online, and that spared us from waiting hours in the sun. The line to get in through the main entrance on the left wrapped around the building. Because of our reservations, we were able to enter through the right door, the one with absolutely no line. (In fact, as we walked through that door, a couple walking out told us that was just the "special entrance" and we'd have to walk around. Not so much!)


As soon as we got through security, we made a beeline for the rotunda where the Charters of Freedom are kept. There we did have to wait a little while, but before long we were wading through the crowds to glimpse the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Looking at those faded, centuries-old documents, I was all-too-aware of their importance. Everything in this country comes from the ideas put into words on that parchment. And I got chills when I saw those three little words: "We the People."
After walking through the rotunda, we explored the rest of the National Archives Experience. We saw ship logs and farm deeds. We read letters and saw photos. We got a good idea of just how much information is stored in those archives. We knew we couldn't do everything in DC, but I'm so glad we made those reservations so we could visit the National Archives.

After our Archives visit, we wandered back toward the National Mall. The Smithsonian museums were about to close, so we just walked through the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden.




I loved this piece, and then I read that it was donated by the Nancy Lee and Perry Bass Fund! Go, home team!
For dinner we indulged in delicacies from a hot dog stand. Katie had seen the food vendors all over the mall, and she really wanted to give one a try. We all enjoyed the dogs...
...and the desserts! Although we might not have had as much fun as the dad and daughter who photographed every moment at the hot dog stand as if they were spending their entire vacation there, we still had a good time.
And Katie was really "livin' the dream"!

The view from the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue

So we had the whole evening in front of us, and many of the sights close to the hotel were already closed. A quick check of the guidebook helped us find something that was open and just a Metro ride away.


It seemed like the perfect complement to our Arlington Cemetery visit to pay our respects at the Pentagon.
Cantilevered benches represent those killed on the plane and in the Pentagon on 9/11/01.

Names of those killed are on the memorial benches. The benches' positions indicate where people were when they were killed. If you can see the name and the Pentagon, that indicates the individual was in the building at the time of the crash. If you see the name and the sky, that means that person was aboard Flight 77.
The memorial units are arranged along "age lines," so the youngest victim, a 3-year-old, is at one end and the oldest is on the other side.

The memorial was such a sobering place to be. This ground is now hallowed, just like Ground Zero in New York and the field outside Shanksville. Visiting here led to one of my favorite moments of the whole trip. As we left the memorial and headed back to the subway station, Ryan and Katie were filled with questions about September 11th. Brett and I were able to recall certain memories from that day. It was poignant to be able to talk about those things as we walked in the shadow of the Pentagon.

In one day we covered a lot of ground. We saw sacrifice and tragedy; we saw art and nature. And in between all that, we saw the words that gave our nation life and continue to give us hope.

9/11.

It's been seven years since that awful day, and I still can't comprehend the depths of that shock, that pain, the anger.

Seven years, and I still am overwhelmed by all those names, those photos taped to chain link, the desperate moms, dads, husbands, wives looking for their loved ones.

It's been seven years, but I still remember Deepa K. Pakkala.

Remembering...

Deepa K. Pakkala

In memory of Deepa K. Pakkala.

We will never forget September 11, 2001. On the fifth anniversary of that horrible day, I honor Deepa K. Pakkala.

From researching her name online, I have learned that she was a devoted wife to her husband, Sampath, and a loving mother to her infant daughter, Trish. A perfectionist, she was an Oracle consultant who worked long hours. Because of those long hours, she and her husband had hoped to start their own consulting firm from their New Jersey home. They wanted to be able to spend more time with their daughter, who was born on their ninth anniversary in January 2001. The day she died, Deepa arrived early for her job on the 99th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower. She was 31.

I never knew Mrs. Pakkala, but in the short time I've been reading the tributes written by her loved ones, I can tell she was a wonderful woman. Over and over again, I read about her smile, her compassion, her drive to make the world a better place.

For instance, you can read the beautiful eulogy here. For more comments, you can go to this site to see the memorial page sponsored by Marsh & McLennan Companies, where Deepa was working as a consultant. The New York Times' "Portraits of Grief" profile on Deepa is part of the tribute page found here. The guestbook there includes a tribute from her husband, too.

When I think about the 2,996 people who died in the attacks, I'm overwhelmed. It's hard to grasp such a big number. When I scroll through the unbearably long list of victims at the 2996 site, the names begin to blur. The pain represented by those names is enormous. It's too much for me to process--even five years later.

But today I can pause to feel the enormity of this loss. I can picture a man holding his baby girl, desperately missing his sweet wife. By reading online tributes, I can listen in as Deepa's friends recall her giving spirit. I can imagine the tears of those who loved her. And I can cry right along with them.

I pray that her loved ones have found comfort and peace, and I especially pray that Trish will feel her mother's love every day.


I will never forget September 11, 2001, and I pledge to always remember Deepa K. Pakkala.

(Edited to add: The original 2996 has had some server issues, so you can find the list of victims here.)

2,996.

On Sept. 11, I will be honoring Deepa K. Pakkala, 31, who was killed at the World Trade Center.



As the 2996 site says, "Bloggers honor the innocent victims of that awful day..." If you have a blog, you can go to the 2996 website to sign up. (If you don't have a blog, here's a good excuse to start one!)