I wish I had thought to go on Craigslist several years ago and see if I could hire someone to do a sketch. Now I fear it's too late.

Would it be possible for you to create ( with someone's help) a sketch of Don's face & hair ? So you could REALLY give us what he looks/looked like?

I am thinking that the police don't let you use the sketch artists for this sort of thing, but I imagine that if you talked to a police sketch artist, you could work out a deal for him/her to do this for you outside of police hours. If you are really good with faces, you might even be able to find a site online that would let you create it yourself.

I think we could make some real progress this way – imagine Don's face
all over the net! Anyway, just an idea.

Bev

It could be b/c I just wrote an etymologies paper, but "Don" is also a cognate of "gift," isn't it? :) Perhaps he's lying low, perhaps he's moved away from Jersey – who knows. What we all know is that his story, and your story … both are gifts to your readers.

Happy birthday, Don! 9/11's my dad's birthday, too – and something about having an individual to celebrate, no matter how small he/she is on the scheme of things, makes the day a little easier to bear.

Then I come here this morning and read "those people were OURS". shit.

Although I lived in Pennsylvania in 2001, I am now in Montana. I am far from Shanksville, and New York, and Washington, but there's really no escaping it, is there? As my parents can recall their memories of Pearl Harbour ("It was the first time I ever saw Daddy cry", says my mom of her father), so I will do the same for 9/11. After all, it happened to all of us in one form or another.
Thank you for the gentle reminder, and Happy (Belated) Birthday, Don.

Thank you, Sars, as always… you touched and continue to touch so many lives with your words. I continue to hope, with everyone, that you and Don will be reunited eventually.

A month ago, I ran into an old colleague of mine on the train who I used to work with in Jersey City. He had left the firm we were with prior to 9/11, and I had not seen him since. So in the midst of catching up, bombarding each other with questions about old colleagues like "What happened to so and so?" or "Do you still keep in touch with what's her name?", I throw out a name at him to unfortunately hear, "Oh, you didn't hear? 9/11."

Fuck.

FUCK!

We worked with this guy's brother as well.

"Oh shit, tell me you're kidding! Fuck! What about(insert brother's name here)? That must've killed him!"

"Him too."

"Him too, what?"

"9/11."

7 years on and I still can't fully move on from that day. Not that I ever would anyway, but………

For me, one interview stood out from the others. It was with a Conservative/Reform rabbi who said that he saw God on 9/11 in the connections people made that day and the primal, urgent words of love they shared, especially in the transcripts of cell phone calls to loved ones from people in the towers and planes. He incorporated the words from some of those transcripts into his prayers; they showed him singing some of the transcripts next to a New York window. I still cry when I think about it; it was both beautiful and utterly devastating to watch him use those last words of love as prayers. Maybe Don and the connection you made that day are both divine and human? I hope you find Don, I hope you and he can make that connection again; that would be a small and profound victory.

And count me among all those who come here to read "For Thou Art With Us" every year. I keep thinking it will get less real with the passing of time, and watching the footage it does seem hyperreal, like another, violent reality sheared through out of nowhere into our world.

But it's our reality, and every year it, and Don, get more real.

I read your post when it happened, and cried. I've read your searches for Don every year, and hoped you would find him. I like that you're contemplating his angelhood, though I'm not a paranormalist. You'll find him one day, and if not, that's a good theory. I still remember a reader of yours who lost his partner and came to you for help, it was just so heartbreaking. We all cried a lot.

Now I live in another state and I've returned to college after a 5 year hiatus. Yesterday was the first 9/11 since that day where no one mentioned the WTC at all to me. It was even stranger being back in a classroom at the same time it happened, no one caring or even noticing. They're just too removed from it, some of the kids were 10 or 11 when it happened. So thanks for still mentioning it. I think some of us still need to talk and think about it on an emotional level. Once a year is enough, but it helps.