Publication Date: Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Our Town: Three years later
Our Town: Three years later
(September 15, 2004) by Don Kazak
Harold Schapelhouman, a division chief with the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, wears a metal wrist band engraved with the name of Ray Downey.
Downey, the former chief of special operations for the New York City Fire Department, was one of 343 firefighters who died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed three years ago.
Schapelhouman told the story of how he met Downey 15 years ago and became friends over the years.
"We developed a friendship based on a common bond," he told 50 or so people who gathered at the district's headquarters last Friday morning for a remembrance ceremony in honor of 9-11 victims.
Schapelhouman is also the leader of the Menlo Park-based Urban Search and Rescue Team, one of 28 such teams in the country. The late Chief Downey was the leader of all 28 teams.
The Menlo Park team was dispatched to New York City in the aftermath of 9-11, where his friend had died, to be part of the massive effort to clear rubble and recover what they could of those who died.
The Menlo Park team had also participated in the recovery operations after the Oklahoma City bombing.
"How do I feel about those events?" Schapelhouman asked. "Those are difficult questions to answer. Human anguish is a difficult thing to see, and to get past."
The Menlo Park ceremony concluded with a bagpiper playing "Amazing Grace." It was one of four local events last Friday and Saturday marking the third anniversary of 9-11.
The events were all lightly attended, but private and special for some of the people at them.
Frances Foster, her husband and sons attended a small gathering at Palo Alto's Eleanor Pardee Park at dusk on Saturday. Jan Altman, of the group Palo Alto Remembers, organized the event.
Altman had asked the 50 or so people gathered there if they had known anyone who had died in the 9-11 tragedy. Three people raised their hands, including Foster.
Foster said one of her best friends had lived in Palo Alto and then gone on to New York and died in the World Trade Center. She had been godmother to Foster's son, Dylan.
"That's why I am here," she told me when the brief gathering was over. She had lingered to talk to another woman with connections the World Trade Center, and Foster's somewhat restless sons were waiting for mom, sitting on the play equipment in the park.
Samina Faheem Sundas, another Palo Altan, had organized another event for -- different reasons, but from the same heart. Sundas, the executive director of American Muslim Voice, a year-old organization, put together a candlelight vigil, with music and prayers, in the Palo Alto Civic Center Plaza on Friday night.
"Am I doing it because I am a Muslim or because I am an American?" she asked a crowd of 50 or so people. "I am an American by choice, and I am proud of my heritage and religion. It is a religion of tolerance."
An energetic, open woman who rushed back and forth while setting things up and greeting people, her colorful, flowing dress proclaimed her heritage as much as her words defended it.
"We all need to accept each other for who we are so we can celebrate our diversity," she told the crowd.
The briefest of the four local 9-11 remembrance events was marked by silence and dignity on Saturday morning.
Palo Alto firefighters and police gathered to pay homage to 9-11 victims in the fire and police services. There were no speeches, no words.
At 10 minutes to 9 a.m., the firefighters and police officers snapped to attention.
It was a long ten minutes of silence and stillness.
It was a silence to stop and think about events none of us will ever understand, things beyond our control, things that happen to other people, decided by other people.
During the silence, a baby in a stroller broke the stillness by crying out, plaintive cries ringing out over the respectful gathering, touching everyone who heard the crying. The parents quickly hushed their baby.
An American flag was raised to the top of the Hamilton Avenue flagpole and then lowered to half-staff. The ceremony took 15 minutes.
Weekly Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com.
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