God bless America

R.I.P. Russell Keene, our hometown hero.

As our country pauses today to remember and reflect on the events of 9/11, I am still so saddened and yet so proud of a young man from our area, that after helping several people to safety, lost his life that day.  He left behind his wife and a very young daughter, his parents and two sisters.  Russ was part of one of the first families I and my three sisters babysat.  You are never quite prepared, at least I wasn’t, for a national event like 9/11 to strike a chord so close to home, but it did.  When I saw photos of Russ I was taken aback by how much older he was and the years it had been since we had last seen one another.  Such a handsome young man, and a young man who was now called a hero by the entire country.

My family took a much-anticipated trip to New York City five years ago and at the top of my list was to pay tribute to Russ at the 9/11 Memorial.  When I found his name, it suddenly became real to me.  I wept and I kept on weeping.  The fountain just encouraged the tears.  It was so moving.

My girls could not wrap their heads around my emotional outburst.  I told them to imagine the little boy they babysit and how special he is to them.  Then imagine, years later, that little boy grows up to be called a hero on one of the most fateful days our country has ever experienced.  I then explained that was Russ, to me.  They suddenly got it.

You are gone but never forgotten, Russ Keene.  God bless America and all those men, women, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters who lost their lives that day.

This was just a beautiful representation of the tears shed on America soil for so many, many people whose lives ended abruptly on one day.

A striking contrast to the sky.