Out of the Fire Came a Hero & a Survivor — a 9/11 Memory

This blog post is inspired by the Hulu Documentary — 9/11 One Day in America.

I’ve been sitting on this documentary for a few weeks now.

I have been doing my best to process it the best way my mind knew how. I cried many times my first go round watching this documentary and as of today, I have watched it 5 times — each time in one sitting.

When 9/11 happened, I was in Kindergarten. I remember the day because that day, my mom picked me up from school in a panic. I had no idea what was going on, all I knew was that my mom was scared.

Now that I am older and I have finally truly tuned in to what happened on a deeper level that day, my heart aches deeply. It is almost as if I am just finding out about this for the first time.

I imagine what it must have felt like in the final moments of the people who were on the planes that crashed. I imagine what it must have felt like for the people that were going about their work day like normal in the towers — grabbing their morning coffee and heading to their desk. Having a morning meeting in the conference room. Talking amongst each other about what was going to be for dinner that night or what plans they had that weekend.

I imagine what it felt like to be a bystander walking in the streets of New York that very morning — some may have been heading home, some headed to work, some may have been headed to drop their child off at school. I imagine what it felt like to be a first responder on that day the very moment they knew that they would be risking their lives that day and may not return home.

There was nothing that I could’ve done that would’ve prepared me for this documentary. I am an emotional person. I feel things very deeply and I am moved very easily, but I would be lying if I said that I’m not desensitized in a sense to tragedy and the horrors that we see on the news all of the time. But I can say this with everything in me — there has not been one documentary that I have watched in my entire life, that moved me the way One Day in America moved me. This documentary is not filled with reenactments, no. Every thing you see in this documentary is footage from that very day.

The very moment the planes crash.

The debris falling from the sky.

The people in the towers jumping to their death and the sounds of their bodies hitting the overhead below on the ground level.

The fear and sadness on the faces of the first responders as they hear that crippling sound. Knowing that more lives were being lost in that very moment.

The moment that each building collapses to the ground with people still in them.

The smoke cloud that rushed through the streets as people tried to run to safety as the buildings collapsed.

The voices of the people who survived and the pain in their voice as they tell their story.

Everything is captured.

You are there. You are reliving those moments with the heroes and survivors and it’s heavy. It’s heartbreaking. It’s humbling.

On September 11th, 2001, two men would survive this nightmare and become brothers for life. Stanley Praimnath and Brian Clark. This is their story.

On September 11th, 2001 at 9:03 am, a plane was crashed into the 75th floor of the South Tower.

On 81st floor of that very tower — stood a man and his faith, Stanley Praimnath. Stanley, just like everyone else that day was going about his morning as usual. Moments before the plane crashed into his tower, he had no idea that the North Tower had already been hit. Stanley said that had he known, he would’ve never gone into the tower that day. He was told by the security guard at the bottom of the tower to go back to his office and that the building was safe and secured, so he did. At the time, he was still unaware of what was going on in the North Tower. When he got back to his office, he got a call at his desk and he was told “Get out, get out now!” by a young lady who called in from Chicago. He was confused. He didn’t understand what was going on. He asked her to tell him what is going on so that he can leave. As this conversation is going on, he turns to the windows of the building and he can see a plane headed right in his direction at eye level.