Marshall Ramsey

The 11-year-old boy watched his dad climb down the attic ladder. He was holding a dusty cardboard box.  On its side was written “9/11.”

“C’mon.” The dad motioned to his son. “It’s time.”  The both walked out of the hot garage and into the kitchen.

The dad set the box on the old oak table.  “I made this box for you ten years ago. It’s time for us to go through it.”

The son watched intently as his old man opened the dusty lid. The first thing he took out was a yellowed newspaper page with a flag printed on it.

“Why a flag, dad?”

“The days after 9/11, this country came together like it hadn’t since World War 2. The newspaper printed this special flag. People and businesses put these in their windows.  They also hung flags outside of their doors.”

The dad then reached in and pulled out a magnetic American flag.  “Your mom had this on her van.  Americans weren’t Conservatives, Liberals, Blacks, Whites, etc. that day.  They were Americans.  It’s like your Aunt and me.  She bugs me sometimes, but if someone from outside hurt her, I’d be there to defend her. That’s the way we were as a country.”

The boy held a flag pin in his hand.  “I wore that on my suit jacket,” his dad said proudly.  “I have one like it that I still wear.”

The dad then pulled out some color cartoons.  “The cartoonist printed copies of these cartoons and donated all the proceeds to 9/11 victims.  People all across America stopped thinking about themselves and thought of total strangers.  It was inspiring.”  The boy looked at an eagle head made up faces.  Its caption said, “United We Stand.”

The boy then pulled out a photo of firemen raising an American Flag over some wreckage.  The dad explained, “While others were running away from danger that day, police and firemen were running toward it.  It was a powerful example of pure unselfishness. ”

The dad then handed the boy a bumper sticker that said, “Let’s Roll.”

“That was what Todd Beamer said when the brave passengers of Flight 93 fought to retake the airplane from the terrorists. ”

“What’s a terrorist?”

“We’ll get to that.  The terrorists crashed the plane into the ground in Pennsylvania.  But the passengers either saved the White House or the Capitol.  They used the in flight phones — remember the one we saw at the Smithsonian?”

“Yes, sir.”

“That was one recovered from the wreckage.  When they found out from their loved ones what was happening, they took action. They were the first Americans to fight back against the terrorists.”

The dad dug around in the box and pulled out a front page from the local paper, USA Today and The New York Times.  On all three papers was a picture of two large office towers on fire.  “That’s the World Trade Center.  I went there when I was a teenager in 1986.  It was amazing — you could see it for miles. Each tower was  110 stories tall. The terrorists crashed two hijacked airline flights into the towers, causing them to burn and collapse.”

“Did you see it happen?”

“Yes. On live TV.  You were a baby.  Your mom and I were arguing and trying to get out the door.  I saw the first tower on fire on Good Morning America. I told your mom that we needed to stop arguing. That something was seriously wrong.  The black smoke billowed into the deep blue sky.  I knew it wasn’t an accident.  While the TV anchors speculated about the source of the fire, we watched as the second airliner crashed into the second tower.  It was horrible.”

The boy watched as his dad’s eyes watered. His dad collected himself and  continued.

“We sat and watched as the world as we knew it ended right before our eyes. People burned to death on the top floors. Some even chose to jump. We were watching people die on live TV.  Then the first tower collapsed.  It was too horrible for words.”

They sat there in silence for a moment.  Then the dad continued, “I had to go into work.  But I didn’t want to leave. I just wanted to be with you and your mom. I remember driving into work. Cars were going 50 mph on the interstate. We all were in shock. I remember gas was $1.35 a gallon at the station near the interstate.  Airplanes started to land. The FAA forced every plane down to prevent any more terrorist attacks.  You know about Flight 93. Another flight crashed into the Pentagon, killing hundreds there, too.”

The boy looked at a photo of a burned hole in the side of the Pentagon.

“When I got to work, we all watched in horror as the second tower crashed to the ground.  I will forever remember the shot of the Statue of Liberty standing proudly in front of the smoke pouring from Manhattan. ”

“Who did this?” the boy looked at his son. “Is this why we are at war in Afghanistan?”

“Yes.  It was Osama Bin Laden.  He’s now dead.  He’s the ones the Navy SEALS killed.”

The boy looked at his dad. “So he was a terrorist?”

The dad silently nodded.  “The very worst. But for all the terror he tried to cause, he failed.  Yes, there was horrible death and destruction, but this country came together like it hadn’t in years.  Today, they will dedicate a memorial where the World Trade Center once stood. Mr. Bin Laden misjudged our country. We didn’t quit. We rebuilt.  When things got bad, we got good.”

The boy looked through a book on 9/11 and then asked his dad, “Why did you save all this stuff?”

“I wanted you to understand the world you’ve now inherited.  Life changed forever that day.  What was left of our innocence was lost.”

The boy took out a yellow ribbon with his name on it.

“That was your uncle’s. He was deployed to Afghanistan to fight the terrorists. He died when you were four.  He’s buried in Arlington Cemetery near where the plane hit the Pentagon. ”  The dad couldn’t continue.

The son hugged his dad. Both sat there for a few minutes until the dad could continue.

“The days after 9/11 were powerful.  Congress even came together and sang on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.  People stood in parks and held hands.  The terrorists tried to plant seeds of fear. Instead, we came together.  It hasn’t been perfect. There has been war, waste, death and destruction.  Our country became divided again. We’ve had our rights threatened in the name of security. And don’t get me started about airport security. But at the end of the day, we’re still here. And today, we will come together to remember and honor those who we lost on that fateful day ten years ago.”

The dad and the boy packed back up the box.  They carried it into the living room and watched dedication ceremony of the memorial at Ground Zero.  As the water from the fountains poured into the former footprint of the World Trade Center towers, the boy looked at his dad and said, “United We Stand, dad.”

The dad put his arm around his son and said, “Yes. United We Stand.”

He worked as a security guard at the hospital during the week. And on the weekends, he washed dishes in the hospital cafeteria.  The small checks added together to pay the hospital what the insurance wouldn’t cover.  He’d do anything to pay for his wife’s chemo.  Love would make you do crazy things like that.

He was 78 years old,  but he didn’t look a day over 65. It was probably his smile. But it was most likely his love for the lady in the bed.  He sat next to her whenever he wasn’t working just so he could hold her hand. Love would make you do crazy things like that, too.

They had met when he stepped off the train from Korea.  She was a nurse. He was a soldier. She was impressed by his stripes and medals.  He thought her white uniform made her look like an angel. They were married not long after that in a small, white country chapel.  For fifty-five years, they had tested “for better or worse.”  He looked her all tangled up in tubes and sighed. This was definitely “worse.”  His angel was in pain.

She was so strong.  The mother of three boys, she had taught those boys wrong from right.  And did she teach them well. All three were successful men. They looked like their mom and thankfully, he laughed, had her discipline, too.  The three boys had taken turns with their dad sitting with their mom.  They put a new meaning to “intensive care.”

A head nurse came in and put a blanket around the husband’s shoulders.  She  looked sadly at the bundle of bones and tubes lying next to him.  She had once worked for the frail lady in the bed.  So many nurses had.  Even legends get sick.  But it was still so hard to believe that cancer would have the nerve to attack someone so strong.  She quietly snuck out without disturbing the him again.  He was praying. And so was she.

God had to know he needed her.  But just in case He didn’t know, he thought he’d tell Him again. And again. And again.

As their bodies grew more frail, their souls grew closer.  He thought of her first. She thought of him first. They never had to be selfish because they always knew the other would be there.  That was very powerful.  Love had been their fountain of youth.

The cancer has started as a speck on an x-ray.  The speck had grown and spread, like Kudzu in the Yazoo City hills. She had fought so bravely.  But her fight was starting to fade.

He prayed again.

An orderly interrupted. “Hi.  Mind if I come in?”

The husband looked at the young face.  Something seemed very familiar about him.  He nodded and said, “C’mon in, young man.”

The orderly pulled up a chair and sat next to the husband.  The room was dark, yet the he sensed a light coming from somewhere.  The orderly held the man’s hand and then his wife’s.  Warmth flowed between the three of them.

The next day her doctor came in with a fresh set of x-ray’s:  The inoperable tumor was shrinking.  The doctor couldn’t explain it. The radiologist was completely at a loss. The oncologist had never seen anything like it.  The nurses called it an answer prayers.  The husband didn’t care.  He had been given a little more time with the love of his life.

The husband stopped by the nurses station to say hello. He asked the Head Nurse about the young orderly.  She looked at him and said,”Sorry, we don’t have anyone matching his description working here.”

As he held wife’s hand that night, he looked down at her sleeping face and figured it all out.  Even angels occasionally help out one of their own.  Love makes them do crazy things like that.

He stood on the battleship U.S.S. Alabama’s wet, wooden deck.  She had once ruled the seas, having fought valiantly in World War 2. She was mighty. She was powerful. But in the end, she wasn’t very nimble. And to add insult to injury, she was also expensive and vulnerable.  The very symbol of a nation’s strategic power had ended up as a museum piece.

The first part of his career he worked for a giant corporation that was like a battleship. It too was powerful. Thousands of employees worked in unison so it could rule the corporate seas. They knew that if they took care of the battleship, the battleship would take care of them. But a few years ago, things had begun to change.  He was too busy manning the big guns to notice it at first.  He was just doing “his job.” Smaller armed boats with new weapons had begun to challenge the battleship’s supremacy on the high seas.  His company had tried to shoot them out of the water with the big guns.  The small boats were too nimble.  The battleship couldn’t turn with them.  The captain decided to reduce the number of crew to cut operational costs to compete.  Eventually there was no one on board to fire the big guns.  The battleship limped along at half speed, a shadow of its former self.

On one of  the battleship’s final cruises, he had been tossed overboard.  It’s just something that sometimes happens when a ship hits a storm.  He inflated his life raft and focused on survival.

Those initial days after plunging overboard were the most frightening of his life. The waves tossed from white cap to white cap; he held on as tight as he can.  But eventually he managed to get rescued. And then he put his skills to work. He soon built his own small craft. He used his skills chart a new course for his destiny. And when he came across a challenge, he was nimble.  He had successfully navigated the seas of change.

His hand rested on one of the U.S.S. Alabama’s mighty 16-inch guns.  He looked across Mobile Bay and then back at the mighty gray lady.  He smiled.  The world had changed.  And unless you were a battleship, that wasn’t a bad thing.