Angel of Sorrow

Two weeks ago, a dear friend of the family passed away. He was a great spirit of joy and strength in the Westchester community. I had drawn this image to give to his family in remembrance of his faith and spirit that will be sorely missed. I initially had not intention of posting this, but then when it was brought to my attention that this day is the tenth anniversary of the attack on 9/11. The memory of that fateful day resonated within me, and I feel that it is only appropriate to post that memory for the collective consciousness of the internet to remember as well.

On September 11, 2001, I had woken up to the sound of an explosion. I quickly dismissed it as a dream and probably the resonance of sound from something undefined outside my bedroom window. It was earlier than usual when I woke up for school, but nothing else was unusual. Then as I walked into our living room, and my mom turned on the TV for her routine half-viewing of the morning news, I saw the fire and smoke. The twin towers were burning. The news anchors were quieter than usual, and we all realized what had happened. Fear shook me to the core, airplanes were involved in the strike against American capitalism. My mother and I lived underneath the flight pattern of LAX, and everyone was conjecturing that Los Angeles would be the next potential target. I did not want to go home from school that day, fearing even to take the bus to my father's house who also lived just a mile from the landing strips. The terrible loss of all the firefighters and other civil service men and women in the conflagration at the scene of terrorism also struck home. Many of my family members, friends and neighbors serve our great nation as civil servants at varying degrees. I couldn't imagine losing everyone I ever knew in one foul swoop of an angry hand. 

We had a moment of silence and prayer that day at school with everyone gathered in the hallway - I went to a Catholic school, so prayer was never questioned and always encouraged. So in a way, the image above is my prayer today to those who are taken from us without a moment's notice. A reminder that even though they are no longer here with us in person, they will always be with us in spirit.