Primary Theme – Experience: The Flight 93 National Memorial provides ideal opportunities for people to come to deeper understandings of their own experiences of the events of September 11, 2001 and its consequences as well as opportunities for younger people to understand how those experiences can affect their own lives.

Research Finding - The events of 9/11 evoked strong emotions from many people, including feelings of sadness, grief, and loss.

Supporting Description - The events of 9/11 were traumatic for many people who responded with sadness and other emotions in order to deal with this trauma. Some people coped with the trauma by distancing themselves from the events. Family members expressed sadness for the loss of their loved ones who had died in the crash. First responders shared traumatic and emotional memories of the experiences at the crash site. Visits to the memorial caused strong feelings to emerge or re-emerge for many people, some of whom had not expected to be overcome with emotions after all these years.

Sample Supporting Interpretive Theme Statement - Many of us are still responding to the events of September 11, 2001–visiting the Flight 93 Memorial is, for many, one way of dealing with their sadness and loss.

Related Topics – GRIEF AND LOSS; PHYSICAL SICKNESS

Illustrative Quotes -

“But anyway, they were all talking and then when my dad came out Coach Cowher and his wife started talking to my parents. And I’m really not listening to the conversation but the next thing you know, they’re hugging each other and they’re both crying. You know, my mom and my dad are crying and Coach Cowher and his wife are crying. And they’re hugging each other and at that time, it sticks out in my mind, comes this reporter from Pittsburgh. I don’t know how she got back there and she’s back there and she’s getting ready to raise the camera up and she’s getting stuff on this microphone and Kordell Stewart stays and he goes, he puts his hand up. He blocks the camera. I’m pretty sure that what he does and he says, this isn’t about me or about us, it’s about them and it’s time for you to leave. You know what I mean, shows you what type of people, these guys, these people really are and pretty much asked her to leave. The next thing you know she was gone. And I went up to him, I said, thank you very much. And he goes and says about how he lost his mother and his sister to cancer recently. And I said, you guys have no idea how big [becomes very emotional]…” [Family Member, April 2005, Oral History]

“Maybe he could cope with it better or the realization of it and I said, Dad, you can’t, this is a sense, all deaths are senseless but this one’s even more. I said, he was stolen from us. It’s not like a car accident, you know what I mean. This one you really can’t get a grab onto how bad it hurts, how he left this world. You know, how he’s just stolen from you.  And I said, but, I said, but you should be proud of yourself.” [Family Member, April 2005, Oral History]

“So much was going on. People coming and going and we were just like devastated. So, you just, we were in a daze. So, I really don’t, I remember some things that took place that day and some I don’t remember [voice seems about to be overcome with emotion].” [Family Member, June 2006, Oral History]

“I mean, we were, you know, the biggest thing I remember is, you know, you’re, you’re there, you know, it was there minutes after, um, this plane crashed and these people died and [slight pause] the thing that struck me was what we didn’t see. I’ve said that before. You know, you’re expecting to see bodies, you’re expecting to see, to be blunt, dead people and we didn’t see any of that. You didn’t see faces; you didn’t see [deep sigh] bodies, you know; you just saw [short pause] pieces and, that’s bad enough, um, to, to see that, but, in a strange way, it made a little bit easier, I think, uh, for, for the rescue people not to have to, um, [slight pause], I know that sounds strange, but, it, it’s, it just was not to have to see whole human bodies and, again, that sounds strange, but [deep sigh], but I, I do, I remember, then, uh, the Dateline Show came on [swallows] and we had it on up at our fire station and a bunch of the guys got together to watch it there.” [First Responder, December 2006, Oral History]

GRIEF AND LOSS:

“Well, it’s been devastating, as far as – well, it’s difficult for any family to lose a family member and with this being the circumstances that it was, it’s, it has had big impact.  And it’s, that it’s, you never forget a family member that dies, but this stays in the public eye so much, so it’s a constant reminder.  Not that you would forget, but it’s so public, so I think that’s made it a little more difficult, just because it’s, it stays more in the news.  You’re reminded constantly, where as, at some point when it’s a little more of a lull and not too much is going on, when you can get on with your life a little bit.  But, it’s, it’s a family, and we were a close family.  We always have been, so that makes it more difficult [voice seems about to be overcome with emotion].  Her, the lack of her presence. [brief pause]  And as far as my husband and myself, since Sandy died, we’ve lost four of our family members [brief pause, cries as she continues to speak], but there’s no comparison to losing a child [cries].  It’s just difficult.”  [Family Member, June 2006, Oral History]

PHYSICAL SICKNESS:

“So, it was just kind of—you know, I couldn’t believe the things that had happened. And so that evening, I was—it was probably one of the most gut-wrenching days of my life. I was, literally, sick that evening when I left. I had to go home. I had people there that were going to stay overnight. I had to gather my thoughts. It was just very overwhelming.” [First Responder, November 2005, Oral History]