sometimes people are not what they seem

[Rasputin]

When my father died at 48, my grandmother commented that "he was so young."  I never understood that comment back then because 48 seems so old to an 8 year old boy.

A decade ago I was 32 and my friend, and law partner, glenn was 40. Glenn seemed so much older and wiser than me. I'm now 42 and 40 no longer seems old and neither does 48 anymore.

Glenn was a regular guy and possibly even a bit of a stereo type. He was a New York jewish lawyer working in lower Manhattan. He had a beautiful girl friend and a very carefree lifestyle. I envied him a bit. His banking clients regularly needed him in North Florida, and we became drinking buddies. We would drink beer, talk football and women's body parts, and otherwise frivolously pass time.

Glenn was no hero -- just another regular guy trying to get through life and have some fun.  I was wrong about glenn. Usually when we are wrong about someone it's because we are disappointed by their failings as a person. In my case I'm both sad and proud to say that I under-estimated glenn and who he really was. As it turns out, he may have been the most selfless person I've ever known. Ten years ago today, after the towers were struck, my New York office evacuated. Everyone left on foot heading north. More accurately, everyone fled North except glenn. Although he'd never spoken to me about it, Glenn was an unpaid volunteer firefighter with the Jericho fire department on Long Island. The last time anyone who knew him spotted him he had approached a fire truck, identified himself, grabbed a mask and a medical kit and was heading into the towers. Dna matches identified glenn's partial remains in one of the towers in march 2002. 

I regretfully report that I only knew glenn as a lawyer and drinking buddy. I never saw the hero inside and yet it was clearly there.

Today I was watching the 9/11 memorial plaza ceremony on tv. In one of the "going to commercial" cut aways to the names on the wall, I saw "Jericho Fire Department Glenn J Winuk" . I concede that I cried. I dont really know why.  I'm not much of a crier. I can still count the times I've done so on one hand.  Glenn began September 11, 2001 as a nearly middle aged business lawyer. Today I learned that glenn will always be known to history as a firefighter. I am glad that glenn has been enshrined in memoriam as a firefighter; I suspect that this would have been his preference. And yet for those who knew him, he was so much more than a "firefighter". 

I suppose we all wonder what we would've done if we were there. Would we have had the courage to storm the cockpit or to run into the burning buildings?  I hope none of us ever needs to find out. I'm just proud that I knew a hero, and I am encouraged that in so many mundane respects he was just like all of the rest of us.

[The Brain]

 

[garbon]

[CountDeMoney]

That's a bummer.

But he's with his brothers now, and he will live forever.

[Tamas]

 

[crazy canuck]

Thank you for posting that.

[Martinus]

 

[Rasputin]

Thank you for posting that.

youre welcome. Ill edit it for grammar and punctuation etc when i get near a real computer.

[garbon]

Thank you for posting that.

youre welcome. Ill edit it for grammar and punctuation etc when i get near a real computer.

No worries.

[Rasputin]

done; thanks

[Gaijin de Moscu]

Thanks for posting, and condolences for your good friend.

[Scipio]

That's a hell of a story.  I'm glad I don't have a similar one; all of my friends and acquaintances who were in the area there survived, thank God.

[Grey Fox]

To Glenn :

I'm in a permanent state of teary eye today.

The 10 year old kid who was naming victims & finish with his dad, broke me. I had to hold my daughter a good 10mins.

[PDH]

I raise a glass to Glenn. 

I cannot know how people react (and I always hope I would react well), but when someone does their job calmly in face of horror and tries to save others, that person is a hero.

[crazy canuck]

I am glad Rasputin posts this every year - at least I remember him posting this in past years.  Every year it has the same or maybe greater impact on me.