In the midst of an Overwhelming and Unbelievable National Disaster, and despite the grief and anger and emotional upheaval that was taking its toll on the country, in spite of all that, you took us into your hearts and home with a simple invitation that began with, "Of course you will stay with us! where else would you go?"
Motel, Hotel? That was waved aside.
We will never forget.
The years may have softened the edges surrounding the Memory of those days, but the inner core of sadness and vulnerablity still remains, encased in steel and concrete at Ground Zero.
Stories will be told over and over of how total strangers became life long friends and were given welcome, shelter, and food while they were the unexpected guests of entire towns, (on both sides of the world's longest undefended border) - and how we all waited until the planes were able to fly again and take us home.
We are one of those grateful million stories.
Long may our two countries differ in opinion but never waver in respect for each other's strengths.
Love from your Grateful Canadian friends:
The Quail Hillers
Blessings to all those who gave or received shelter during 9/11.
First of all, thanks. We count among our blessings that the HAPPY memory of your unexpected return stay with us is there to counterbalance the horrors and sadness of that day. Secondly, while we would have been as hospitable to strangers, you are friends. Friends help friends. There is no question about that for us as we know there would not be had our situations been reversed. As for the planes and not flying, one of the unusual facts readers of this blog won't know until I share this is that our home at that time was perched on a hilltop overlooking the airport in Burbank (named after Bob Hope, who knew a thing or two about "entertaining the troops in wartime" too!) and the order that went out on 9/11 to put every airliner on the ground wherever fast meant that we were able to have "ringside seats" at the most unusual scene--the taxiways and gates and every spare inch of space off the runways at that airport crammed with grounded planes and the eerie silence of no traffic landing or taking off for days. It gave the whole experience, beyond the news on TV and the contact with family and friends elsewhere, an eerie silence like one of those "The Day After The Aliens Destroy The Earth" kinds of SciFi movies--the ones where you wonder how the heck they got the streets so empty and quiet to shoot Our Hero roaming the emptyness.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, that day reinforced a truth that is always true in good/bad/indifferent times: The issue of nations and opinion differences and all that which you refer to is irrelevant to this simple distinction: There are, in life just as in the movies, The Good Guys and The Bad Guys, and just like in the classic Westerns, the Good Guys win when they stick together, form the wagons into a circle, and protect and support one another in any way they can.
Glad we could be there at Fort Burbank for you, pardners. Y'all come back now anytime. (Smile)
Such a sweet story in the midst of a dreadful time in our world. TFS
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