Ten Years Ago Today, The World Changed Forever
Located on our town green is this small, unassuming memorial to Dianne Bullis Snyder, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, September 11, 2001. Dianne's plane was the first to hit the World Trade Center, the North Tower, at 8:46 am. Her parents live in town, Dianne grew up here, graduated from our local high school, and lived here most of her life before moving to Massachusetts in 1999.
I know loss—how difficult it is, putting one foot in front of the other just trying to get through each day. This horrific tragedy belongs to every American and many millions of others throughout the world. I can't even imagine, however, what it must be like to have this loss be personally yours. Everywhere one looks at this time of year—TV, newspapers, the internet, coffee shops, grocery stores—September 11 remembrances loom large. The very seconds and minutes of your loss are replayed over and over again, editorialized, scrutinized, debated. My heart goes out to her husband, her two children, her parents, her sister and two brothers, and to all of her friends that have had to make a life without her. I can't imagine anything more difficult.
Her memorial stone includes this quote by Thomas Campbell, a Scottish poet, 1777-1844. I truly believe what he wrote:
"To live in the hearts of those we leave behind, is not to die."
Ten years. May we remember, and keep those we have loved, in our hearts, always.
