A Northern Ontario connection to a NYC commemorative concert
To the Expositor:
For the 22nd year, the lights come on again on the night of September 11, in my fair city.
Yes, I was here on the morning, and actually got a phone call from a dear friend in Sudbury, asking me if I knew of the attack.
Since those horrifying days and the years that have followed, it never gets old. I commemorate, with my family, our dear Jonathan Uman who was on the 102nd floor and died during the attack.
The memories in all of us simply stay inside us.
Yet 22 years after this, there are two things that I heard this week that make me smile.
Our former mayor Mike Bloomberg was interviewed yesterday. He said something wonderful. He talked about how devastated the area was after the attack. I walked down there three days after with dear friends and the rubble, dirt, smoke was paramount. Police stood by and asked us to keep walking. What Mayor Mike said was that the huge area has been rebuilt, with a museum, apartments, shops, restaurants and new office buildings and there is again abundant life, business, music shops, with not only residents, but many visitors from all around the world.
I live in mid-Manhattan, near the Empire State Building and I happily attest to seeing so many people, so many visitors still coming here and enjoying what New York City has to offer, even after the pandemic.
Next is what I heard Sunday afternoon at a beautiful concert in memory of the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the US, given at the St. Paul’s and St. Andrew’s Church on West 86th Street in NYC. For the invocation and remarks given by Manager Jamie Gigantiello, of the Fire Department of New York, he spoke with great conviction to us, about four hundred in the large church. He spoke with resolution and I had never heard this before and sat up straight to applaud, as we all did.
FDNY Manager Jamie said, “It wasn’t about 9/ll. Of course, it was. But what really happened after that, was September 12th, when all of us pulled together, helping, being there, working in every possible way to recover, clean, rebuild and grow—and that is what we have been doing every day for 22 years. We celebrate our intentions, constant hard work, planning and regrowing what we can.”
While 3,000 people died during and after this, what Manager Jamie said seemed to give a breath of accomplishment which I had not thought of.
I sighed, with a new sense of what he said. Yes, for 22 years, we’ve all been working toward this.
And the next best part! Performing this evening was my lovely friend, who I have known in Sudbury at first, and then she moved to New York City, and sang at one of my piano nights at home. The amazing, talented soprano vocal soloist, Alyson Spina, who was born and grew up in Sudbury. She is the daughter of Jeannie and Ron Spina, who have travelled to New York City to see and hear their daughter perform. With her in his role as a bass baritone vocal soloist was her husband, Coastas Tsourakis, as they performed with an orchestra that played Psalm 23, by Franz Schubert.
The audience in the church was hushed, reverent and grateful for the concert on Sunday night.
Bonnie Kogos
Manhattan and Manitoulin
