Before 9/11: Sara Low's Last Visit to San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge

One of Sara's Final Views in San Francisco

(Image from Hilton San Francisco)

Regular readers of this blog will recall that every 9/11 anniversary for the past few years, I have posted a blog entry dedicated to the memory of Sara Low, one of the flight attendants on American Airlines Flight 11, the first airliner to hit the World Trade Center. I didn't know her personally, but my brother Tim did from the years that he worked in Batesville, Arkansas, Sara's hometown, and he also knows her father.

My first post on Sara missed the 2006 anniversary of 9/11 by two days, for I only came to know of her through a comment left on my blog by my brother and therefore didn't post until the 13th of September. My second post on Sara went up the very next day, September 14th, to add some more details about who Sara was. A year later, on the precise 2007 anniversary of 9/11, I posted an entry on time. My most recent entry was posted on September 11, 2008, and I will post one next time as well.

Why am I telling you this now? Because a touching comment was left yesterday on the entry for September 14, 2006 by Tracey Alderete, a woman who met Sara Low in San Francisco two days before 9/11 and remembers her as a beautiful young personable woman full of life and potential:

I was with my best friend, who is an American Flight attendant and worked the flight to San Francisco two days before 9/11. I got to know Sara along with several other flight attendants from Boston on that flight. I must say it was my most favourite flight in memory (I fly a lot with my friend) as they all were so fun and just plain hospitable to me. I joked with Sara to stop bringing me food (all the crew were filling me up with drink and food) and asked her if she was trying to fatten me up like a Christmas goose! I rode with them all to the Hilton here in SF and later that night met for drinks at Red Room on Sutter. We ate at a little Thai restaurant around the corner. I took several photos of the group and one that haunts me still -- Sara looking so beautiful in SF. Sara wanted to go dancing and through much talk and some of the crew being tired, we didn't go but I wish we had now. The following day we all somehow ended up biking in Golden Gate Park, by chance running into each other at different locations. The day was so beautiful with perfect warmth and sunshine. We ate at Cha-cha's and then headed back to the hotel to get the crew van to SFO and back to Boston. Again the flight was super fun with the crew (in my opinion the best Hub of crew in American) laughing and having great conversations. When we landed at about 7 am in Boston, the weather was gorgeous as if San Francisco had come back with us. We were all on the train platform going back to the city. Sara was excited because she had just moved into a new place and her mom was coming up to help decorate it. Sara said she was going home to sleep as she was picking up a flight to LA the next morning for someone else. We all hugged and said we should all get together for drinks soon or on another flight which ever came first.

Sara was one of the most naturally beautiful women I had the greatest fortune to have met, though briefly, and she is permanently etched in my heart. She was a radiant person and we all have been robbed of a very unique, extremely kind young woman.

I lost several flight attendant friends that day and they each are so special in my heart. I wish I had met Sara earlier I know we would have been friends, you just got that feeling when talking to her. Luckily my best friend, who like Sara picked up a flight for someone else, . . . ended up getting grounded in Vermont.

We talk about Sara and the others when we fly together, they are always in our thoughts. Thank you for posting this page with regards to Sara!

All thanks is due to you, Ms. Alderete, for this heartfelt story about Sara Low the final two days before September 11th, 2001. Sara must have been a truly lovely person since she's still being remembered not only by her family and close friends but even by those who knew her only fleetingly.