Remembering 9/11 . . .

Sara Low

On September 13, 2006, I first blogged on Sara Low. Some readers may recall those words from back then:

On my 9/11 post, my brother Tim left this comment:

It's hard to believe it has been five years since 9/11. Thinking about Sara, a flight attendant I knew from Batesville, who died on Flight 11.

Astonished, I responded:

Tim, I had no idea that you knew someone who died in the 9/11 attacks.

I'm sorry to hear this. Was she a close friend?

To which, Tim said:

I know Sara's father well and knew Sara when she was in her teens and early 20s. She was an intelligent and beautiful person who deserved better than her tragic end.

Five years have passed, but only now have I learned that one of my own brothers knew someone not far from our hometown of Salem who was killed on September 11, 2001.

Sara died when she was only 28 and deserves a far better tribute than I can give, for I didn't know her, but I can at least add this post to her memory.

That's what I wrote back then, posting those words five years after 9/11. We the living are now heading into the tenth year since I first posted on this particular 9/11 tragedy. I think that this year's blogpost on the memory of Sara Low will be my last public memorial, though I'm sure that I will always think of her on 9/11 because of the personal link through my brother Tim.

Peace to all of good will . . .

Sara Elizabeth Low: 9/11

Sara Low's Life Stone
Google Images

Regular readers will know that each year I recall Sara Elizabeth Low, a flight attendant who perished on American Airlines Flight 11, the first airliner crashed by the terrorists into the World Trade Center, as I learned on September 13, 2006, when my brother Tim told me that he had known her and her family when he lived and worked in Batesville, Arkansas, her hometown:

It's hard to believe it has been five years since 9/11. Thinking about Sara, a flight attendant I knew from Batesville, who died on Flight 11.

Sara has been remembered more for her life than for her death, or that is at least the intention behind the "Life Stone" in her hometown. That is also my intention today, as well as my brother's intention in remembering her, as I'm sure he does each year on this date.

As for those who perpetrated the horror of 9/11, let's not forget that others like them are still out there actively looking for their chance to strike . . .

Sara Low: 9/11 Memorial for 2013

Sara Low Memorial 5k

Every year on the anniversary of 9/11, I devote a blog entry to Sara Low, a young woman with whom my brother Tim was acquainted. She was a native of Batesville,  Arkansas and was working as a flight attendant on the first plane hijacked by the Al Qaeda Islamist terrorists and used as a missile to destroy the World Trade Center.

Her hometown also remembers her annually, by hosting a five-kilometer race through its city streets because Sara was a runner on the track team when she attended school there. Here is a photo of Sara from her high school graduation:

This photo was first shown on my 2008 commemoration of Sara, so if you click on the link you can read what I wrote then. You can also search my blog for yearly entries on Sara, if you have time and inclination.

I didn't know Sara personally, so these blog entries are just a small part of her legacy, and I wanted to show that others also remember her, and in a way far greater than my small, annual commemoration.

Sara Low: Perished in First Plane to Strike WTC on 9/11

Alyson Low Mourns Sister in 2010

Google Images

This year is 2012, and for six years now, since 2006, I've annually set aside September 11th to commemorate Sara Low, a flight attendant from Batesville, Arkansas who died on the first airliner to crash into the World Trade Center. I do this each year because my brother Tim knew her and her family when he worked for several years in a Batesville hospital where Sara's father had an administrative position. I never knew Sara myself, so I always rely upon the words of others who did know her, and this time, I found some words from 2010 by a woman who calls herself "Mrs. Nix" on her blog and who was two years younger than Sara when they both attended school in Batesville:

I read the timelines and remember the events of that morning on purpose every September 11th. After I do that, I try to remember everything I ever knew about Sara Low. She was two years older than me. My stepbrother had a crush on her his freshman year of high school. She was beautiful. She was so, SO kind. She had striking eyes that were sharp and almond shaped. She smiled a lot. I'm pretty sure she was in the band because I remember her in the marching band uniform. I think she played the flute. I'm not sure . . . it was a long time ago. She ran track (so did my brother) and she was a cheerleader and she was an honor student. That's all I can remember because we were children the last time I saw her . . . but I feel like the least I can do for her is remember her.

The reports online say that she was not originally scheduled to work on flight 11. After the hijacking began, she tried to call her parents, but she dialed the phone number they had when she was growing up instead of the current number. She didn't reach them that morning, but she gave one of the other flight attendants her calling card. The card was used to place five calls out with warnings before it was over. The report said Sara's father speculates that maybe because of the stress and fear . . . her childhood phone number was the only one she could remember. Every time I think about that, it makes my stomach knot. She was too good -- in every way too good -- to suffer that kind of fear. I hope she wasn't scared for a long time, and I hope someone was holding her hand.

Every September 11th, those of us connected by some memory of Sara Low are bonded by brief memorials to her. Strangers searching the web for memories of Sara sometimes find my memorial and compose a message. My brother Tim usually stops here to remember the girl he knew. I expect to hear from "Toddler," who drops by every year on this date to think of Sara, and I in turn visit him, though we never knew each other personally and have only this connection. I've promised to buy him a beer or two if he ever happens to be in Seoul, and I'd like to do that for him since he grew up in Batesville and knew Sara, but I don't know if that'll ever happen.

And I offer thanks to "Mrs. Nix" for her words, which I've borrowed without asking, and hope that she'll be understanding if she happens upon my blog entry for this 9/11 anniversary.

Sara Elizabeth Low: Flight Attendant on American Airlines Flight 11

Sara Elizabeth Low

(Image from Guardian Unlimited)

Five years ago, as I was remembering 9/11 on this blog, my brother Tim posted an unexpected comment:

It's hard to believe it has been five years since 9/11. Thinking about Sara, a flight attendant I knew from Batesville, who died on Flight 11.

Astonished to learn of this so late, I responded:

Tim, I had no idea that you knew someone who died in the 9/11 attacks.

I'm sorry to hear this. Was she a close friend?

Tim replied:

I know Sara's father well and knew Sara when she was in her teens and early 20s. She was an intelligent and beautiful person who deserved better than her tragic end.

Five years had passed since 9/11, and only then did I learn that one of my own brothers knew someone from Batesville, Arkansas, a place not far from our hometown of Salem, who was killed on September 11, 2001. Sara died when she was only 28 and deserves far better tributes than those I have annually given, for I didn't know her personally, but I try to remember her memory.

As Tim mentioned, Sara was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, and that plane was only fifteen minutes into its flight when Mohamed Atta, an Al-Qaeda member who had trained as a pilot, took over the plane with the assistance of three other hijackers and flew it off course toward New York City for about thirty minutes until reaching the World Trade Center and crashing it directly into the North Tower between the 93rd and 99th floors at 8:46 a.m. in the first terrorist strike of what quickly became that day of tragic horror.

In those thirty minutes between the hijacking and the crash, though the hijackers were surely unaware, the flight attendants did not passively wait for events to develop, but immediately took action to deal with the emergency and thereby resist the hijackers. Sara Low gave her father's calling card to another flight attendant, Madeline Sweeney, who used it to make a call on an Airfone and contact Logan Airport to convey crucial information about the hijacking. Through that card, we have Sweeney's report down to the final instant of impact. Without Sara's help, that report wouldn't exist.

There's no real closure to the story of 9/11, not even with the killing of Osama bin Laden, for the memory of that terrible day will continue to come up every year on this date. The best that we can do is to carry on the struggle against Islamism and never forget those who died on that day, one of those being a young woman from Batesville, Arkansas named Sara Elizabeth Low.

Remembering 9/11: Sara Elizabeth Low

Sara Elizabeth Low

(Image from Legacy.com)

I was not personally acquainted with Sara Low, a flight attendant from Batesville, Arkansas who died when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 on September 11, 2001, but when my brother Tim lived and worked in Batesville, he got to know her and her father, possibly her mother and sister as well, and that's why I try to remember her on anniversaries of 9/11.

I see from checking online that others are also remembering her at this time. A Legacy site reveals that Sara Low's only sister, Alyson Low, remembered her on September 7, 2010 with a poignant quote from Emily Dickinson:

"I would like more sisters, that the taking out of one, might not leave such stillness."

These words are ultimately borrowed from a letter written in 1859. The entire letter, which clarifies for us that Emily Dickinson's beloved sister, Vinnie, had been 'taken' only in the sense that she had been required at the home of a sick aunt, can be found in The Letters of Emily Dickinson. In that same letter, Dickinson goes on to say of her sister:

"Vinnie has been all, so long, I feel the oddest fright at parting with her for an hour, lest a storm arise, and I go unsheltered."

From this letter, one can see that Emily Dickinson not only deeply longed for her sister's presence, but even needed her as well, and could scarcely wait until her sister should eventually return to fill the stillness of her temporary absence.

For those like Alyson Low who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001, however, that stillness will always remain, and if you go to the Legacy site, you can look at the Guest Book Photos posted there that demonstrate just how much she and her sister loved each other.

Sara Elizabeth Low of American Airlines Flight 11: Tracey Alderete Remembers

Sara Elizabeth Low

(Image from Boston Herald)

Eight years ago, American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 local time, killing hundreds in the tower and all 92 people aboard the plane, including flight attendant Sara Low, a 28-year-old woman from Batesville, Arkansas whom my brother Tim knew.

Every year since my brother told me that he knew Sara Low, I've posted a 9/11 memorial entry about her. Today, I want to draw readers' attention to a memory of Sara Low posted on my blog March 7th this year by Tracey Alderete, a woman who met Sara Low in San Francisco two days before 9/11:

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!

As I told Ms. Alderete when she posted this, all thanks is due her for this heartfelt story about Sara Low the final two days before September 11th, 2001. I am merely the messenger.

For some, the vivid memory of that dreadful day is fading, and I suppose that it is with me as well, but take some time at least to think of Sara Low and the others who died eight years ago today.

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.

Remembering Sara Elizabeth Low: American Airlines Flight 11

Sara Low
High School Graduation, 1991
(Image from Evidence in Sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui)

Two years ago, my younger brother Tim informed me that he had known one of the flight attendants on American Airlines Flight 11, the first flight to crash into the World Trade Center. Her name was Sara Low, and her father and my brother had gotten to know each other when my brother worked in a hospital in Batesville, Arkansas, Sara Low's hometown.

Here's part of what Tim wrote to me:

I know Sara's father well and knew Sara when she was in her teens and early 20s. She was an intelligent and beautiful person who deserved better than her tragic end.

Sara and the rest of her flight crew, being on the first hijacked plane, could have no inkling of what lay in store, unlike on United Airlines Flight 93, where the crew and passengers learned of the earlier attacks and mounted a pre-emptive counterattack that stopped the hijackers from succeeding in their suicide mission. Yet, we should remember small acts of resistance, for as I noted two years ago:

. . . the last recorded information that we have about Sara Low is that on the highjacked American Airlines Flight 11, she gave to another flight attendant, Amy Sweeney, "her father's calling card, which allowed [Sweeney] . . . to pretend to be a passenger and use an AirFone to call Logan Airport and relay the vital information."

Even a small act like that took presence of mind and some degree of courage in terrible circumstances that the vast majority of us will never face.

Sara Low left behind a loving family -- her father Mike, mother Bobbie, and sister Alyson -- so she is surely remembered with love. Nor is she forgotten by her community. Sara was a track athlete in high school, and her team won a state title in 1989. In honor of her memory, Batesville has for a second year now held the Sara Low Memorial 5K Run and Walk.

I'm certain that many other memories of Sara Low deserve to be recorded, and likely have been by those who knew her personally, among them my brother Tim, who probably every year on 9/11 finds himself "[t]hinking about Sara, a flight attendant . . . from Batesville, who died on Flight 11."

Remembering Sara Low: American Airlines Flight 11

Sara Low

(Image Borrowed from Guardian Unlimited)

Last year on my September 11th post, my brother informed me that he had known one of the persons who had died on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center.

Today being a sad anniversary of that terrible day, I just want to repeat some things that I posted about Ms. Low a year ago.

First, from my September 13, 2006 blog entry:

On my 9/11 post, my brother Tim left this comment:

It's hard to believe it has been five years since 9/11. Thinking about Sara, a flight attendant I knew from Batesville, who died on Flight 11.

Astonished, I responded:

Tim, I had no idea that you knew someone who died in the 9/11 attacks.

I'm sorry to hear this. Was she a close friend?

To which, Tim said:

I know Sara's father well and knew Sara when she was in her teens and early 20s. She was an intelligent and beautiful person who deserved better than her tragic end.

Five years have passed, but only now have I learned that one of my own brothers knew someone not far from our hometown of Salem who was killed on September 11, 2001.

Sara died when she was only 28 and deserves a far better tribute than I can give, for I didn't know her, but I can at least add this post to her memory.

Now, from my September 14, 2006 blog entry:

I ... discovered that the last recorded information that we have about Sara Low is that on the highjacked American Airlines Flight 11, she gave to another flight attendant, Amy Sweeney, "her father's calling card, which allowed [Sweeney] ... to pretend to be a passenger and use an AirFone to call Logan Airport and relay the vital information.

"With that card, Ms. Sweeney reported what she knew and saw, providing valuable information until "the plane suddenly changed course, ... [and] she spoke her last reported words: 'I see water and buildings. Oh my God! Oh my God!'"

And that was the end.

Six years later, and one year after learning of Sara Low, I still think about these people whose terrible deaths changed everything.

Feeling rather somber this morning, I'll just stop here for today.

Sara Low, with the World Trade Center Visible

I wasn't planning to post again on Sara Low -- for as as said, I didn't know her personally -- but as I was searching the internet for more information about her, I found a site showing exhibits from the Moussaoui case and saw the above photograph, which struck me as poignant.

Another site, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, also provided this photo and eight others of Sara Low among a total of 440 images of evidence presented in the Moussaoui case. I won't link to these other eight individually, but if you want to search for them, you'll find these eight photos by scrolling about halfway down.

I also discovered that the last recorded information that we have about Sara Low is that on the highjacked American Airlines Flight 11, she gave to another flight attendant, Amy Sweeney, "her father's calling card, which allowed [Sweeney] ... to pretend to be a passenger and use an AirFone to call Logan Airport and relay the vital information."

With that card, Ms. Sweeney reported what she knew and saw, providing valuable information until "the plane suddenly changed course, ... [and] she spoke her last reported words: 'I see water and buildings. Oh my God! Oh my God!'"

And that was the end.