13 years.... minus 4 days

4 days...

September 7th, 2001. It was a Friday, I'm sure there was the usual Friday night shopping and dinner out on the way home from work. Probably Logan's Steakhouse in Statesville, creatures of habit if nothing else. Yeast rolls with honey butter, the grilled pork chop and shrimp combo, a baked sweet potato and salad with blue cheese dressing to go along. And lots of sweet tea. Just another Friday night.

I wonder what the victims of 9-11 did that weekend. I've often heard that people "know" when they are going to die, and they subconsciously do things to prepare. 

Maybe they took their loved ones out to dinner, without knowing their celebration of the end of the workweek would be premature. Maybe some shopping, buying things for the fall season they wouldn't be there to enjoy. Maybe they took their kids to the park after work. Maybe they went to a movie. A few romantic comedies were out that night, maybe they went to see one of those, with the secret knowledge of the tragedy to come. Maybe they went to a high school football game, watching a son take the field for the last time, or a daughter full of school spirit and smiles that would soon turn to ashes.

I'm an optimist, so I'll go with those memories. I don't want to believe they knew the manner of their upcoming deaths, and were spared the horror until those final minutes.

One of the stories I followed after 9-11 was the tale of Todd Beamer, from UAL 93. All I ever needed to  know about him can be summed up in his last words to his fellow passengers as they made an attempt to save their lives: "Let's Roll."

Beamer, who was 33, joined a group of men that went against the odds and tried to overtake the cockpit of the Boeing 757 that had been hijacked and was heading back to DC to be crashed into something important. He tried making a phone call on the in-flight GTE system, but ended up route to Customer Service. He told the rep about the hijacking, the knives, the dead flight crew. 

The next to last thing he told the rep: "If I don't make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them." Understandable, he knew the odds were slim and wanted them to have that last memory of his love for them.

His last words weren't to her, they were to his new-found friends on UAL 93. Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, and William Cashman, along with flight attendants Sandra Bradshaw and Cee Cee Ross-Lyles,

"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."

Two months later, President Bush recalled Todd Beamer's words at a ceremony. Bush repeated Beamer's last-heard words, saying, "Some of our greatest moments have been acts of courage for which no one could have been prepared. But we have our marching orders. My fellow Americans, let's roll!"

4 days.