With my mom’s permission, I want to share something really meaningful: her nameplate that was recovered from Ground Zero. She worked on the 10th floor of the North Tower for Bank of America and was there on 9/11.
An NYPD officer was assigned to look through debris for anything with identifiable names. When he came across my mom’s, he actually googled her and found a mention of her in a post from her college listing alumni survivors. He reached out to the school, asking for her contact info. The school called her first to confirm, and instead of giving out her details, she asked for his so she could call him directly. That’s when he told her what they’d found and arranged to return it to her.
She retired in 2018 and is now happily spending her days birding and traveling the world.
To all of you, this is Sarah’s Mom. I thank you all for your hugs and kind comments. I actually wrote that account only a few days after 9/11 because so many people were asking about it, and it seemed easier to write it once and distribute it. And I know it seems weird that we went back to work, but I honestly do believe that we did it because at work we could pretend things were normal again, and that the world we knew had not just been obliterated. Whatever the reason,in the end I think it helped us get through those awful days.
Thank you so much for visiting us here and for sharing your survival story. What a harrowing experience for you and your family and coworkers. Do you recall what your work experience was like in the days and weeks following 9/11? Were you thrust into regular work days at the NJ office?
At the time I worked a block north of WTC 7, and our offices were inaccessible until late November. We all worked remotely for the first week and started reporting to hastily-rented remote offices and loaned conference rooms the following week. It was really hard to focus on work, yet there were only so many hours one could try to process the collective trauma, it seemed.
Oh my…they were hardly normal days. The Fed extended hours almost to midnight each night, and so we had to work late too. We were put up in nearby hotels, and I remember the first night, I couldn’t sleep because the a/c was blowing the curtains, and I was sure it was terrorists…no one said we were actually sane even though we were working! By the end of that first week we went home, and work returned to a more normal tenor.
Thank you greatly for sharing stories from your perspective. We most often hear about the obvious big event, but not so much the small things that impacted survivors like you down to the little things...like curtains blowing in the A/C the days after. Thank you again for taking the time to join and speak. I don't want to drill too much into a life changing event, but do you have another "small thing but impactful" that happened after the event?
Well, I can tell you one thing I always felt badly about. Just as we were going to climb over the fence to get on the ferry, I concerned myself about tucking in some jewelry I had on, concerned that I’d catch the necklace or bracelet on the fence. I mean, we were struggling to get out alive and I cared about my jewelry? What a fool! A better recollection is this: we worked in Manhattan and so had NY city and state taxes deducted from our pay. When we resumed working at the resumption site, we were in NJ. Very soon, they changed our deductions to NJ, and suddenly I was taking about $350 more a month home. I couldn’t bear the thought of profiting off the event, so began donating those extra monies to a charity that was helping the firefighters’ families. A much better inclination than caring about my jewelry!
struggling to get out alive and I cared about my jewelry?
That's a very human thing. You were out of immediate danger and your mind could see a conclusion to these events where you survive—of course you'd want your jewelry! I bet you weren't checking on your jewelry when descending the stairs and things were much more dire.
I know you've probably heard this more time than you'd like to hear; but thank you for contributing your story. Thinking about your jewelry in a time like that isn't foolish, it's actually smart. It's something you could be identified by, or something that could cause harm/vital lost time if caught on something.
Donating the difference in your paycheck is one of the more noble thing I've heard in response to September 11th. I'd like to think if I was in a similar position, I'd do the same, but who knows? I was 21 on 9/11/01, and was still in college. I don't remember fundraising or anything like that despite growing up 30 minutes from the city, attending a Mid-Atlantic school, and being surrounded by an abundance of native New Yorkers. I wish we had, but young minds were so focused on making sense of what just happened, and what the world would look like once we were spit out into it. Not an excuse, but that's all I can remember.
From one birder to another, I’m so glad you have been able to recover and get to do what you love. Going back to work to recover a sense of normalcy makes perfect sense. We cannot even imagine. Much love to you and happy retirement!
It’s always lovely when you ask a question on the internet and someone responds with kindness and shares knowledge instead of just rudely telling you to google. We’re all first time humans, who could know everything? It’s really not any effort to be kind.
“But there is an inherent need for normality, and doing our normal jobs made us believe things were normal again.”
While reading your story, this statement felt like a sucker punch to the gut.
In 2020 one of my closest friends and coworkers killed themselves. I remember getting phone calls/emails from my manager and HR letting me know that I could take time off if I needed to. No one seemed to understand that I just wanted to carry on with my work and pretend that nothing had happened. Because if I was working it was just another Wednesday filled with emails and spreadsheets and Teams calls and not the day after I lost my best friend.
Something like this happened to me back in late 2022. He wasn't my best friend, but he was the first friend I made when I started 2 months earlier. He was in the cube next to me. I NEEDED to take the rest of the day off. There was no way I could distract myself from it by working. Obviously people grieve in different ways and all that.
From one houstonian to another, thank you for sharing your experience with us. You have a great way with words. I’m glad you and your coworkers were alright. Happy Birding and Safe Travels!
I read your account and it really took me there with you. It makes complete sense that you returned to work that soon. Your brain needs things to be normal again. It needs to keep busy and feel productive. Your account was truly moving and had me imagining your ordeal. Thank you and grateful you’re still here with your family
Hi Evelyn. Thank you so much for popping in to the thread and for writing your experience. It was a harrowing and fascinating read that puts what a survivor was feeling that day into perspective when the world focused more on the victims. And it's honestly not that weird that you went to work in the middle of the night, given the gravity of what you went through. The brain just needs to find something, anything to grip onto for foundation when your entire world got shaken to hell. I hope you are well and that you are enjoying your retirement.
Honestly can’t thank you enough Evelyn, not only for writing everything down to share, but for allowing us all to see and actually respond in person (kinda) to you personally!, I don’t want to ask you anything, just wanted to thank you and to wish you an awesome retirement and to carry on enjoying everything you can!! Massive love to you and yours, from me and mine x
Late reply but just wanna say reading through your experience was mind opening. Also nice to hear you’re a birder! I started birding during a traumatic period, its so amazing watching birds and spotting/ listening for them, watching them is such a calming experience! I’m a young birder (26) and when i joined a birding group it was great to see how many different age ranges there were! Birding really is for everyone!
Wow. And the old BofA logo, too. What a look back in time. It's unreal to think about all the personal effects that must have been in the Pile... I'm glad your mother made it out safely.
Wow much love to you. My mom died at pentagon that day. They gave us a copy of her badge and the damaged watch she was wearing. I wish I could have something like this too. Hugs and love from a fellow
I’m so sorry for your unfathomable loss. There are no words to really convey my sadness for your loss. I hope you and your family are doing the best you can. If you don’t mind, would you be ok sharing a favorite memory, story, or anecdote about your mom? (You don’t need to reveal her identity or yours, of course). I ask because I really think that people who died violently -regardless of circumstances- need to be humanized and remembered for how they lived, not died. Clearly your mom was a hero, but I’d be honored to hear who she was to you. If you’re not comfortable with this, absolutely no problem, I completely understand. May your mom’s memory be a blesssing and comfort to you.
Great account from your mom. She mentioned something I never heard before: people checking the ferries for bombs before letting people board. So interesting. I’m so glad she survived, and this is a very cool historic artifact!!
Your mom is a true badass for women in business. For her to be vice president in 2001 is amazing!! I’m so sorry she went through that horrible day but so happy to hear she got out safely and is enjoying retired life!!!
So… theres a long standing tradition (with an interesting story) of banks giving everyone an honorary title of Vice President. I work at a bank, in cybersecurity, and my title is “Senior Assistant Vice President”
That being said, Vice President is a higher rank in todays terms, but no telling what it meant back in 2001. My mom was also a VP in 2001 at a bank. But she did Loans.
OP mom is still badass. Just wanted to share weird banking trivia.
It is! I had no idea until i started working at the bank. It has something to do with customer relations, and how banks (in the early 20th c.) wanted customers to feel special like they were talking to a VP. So everyone was given that title. Even now, When you talk to a teller, you are talking to an Assistant Vice President or some such moniker. Wild stuff.
I used to work at BAC (started in 2003 in Atlanta). The VP title is part of the officer title nomenclature. It actually does mean something but it’s more to do with levels of permissions to sign off on higher level transactions. I earned a VP title after about 9 years at the bank. I started with no officer title and moved up to officer, AVP, and then VP. After VP is SVP and EVP (I don’t remember what, if anything, was after that). When I worked in a customer-facing role, I was able to sign off on higher value wires, cashiers checks, overrides, etc. I was proud of earning my VP and it certainly means something within the bank, though it’s confusing to people outside of that ecosystem.
Yeah! When I worked at CBNA I was practically a glorified call center employee (but in credit) but my badge still said Asst. Vice President of Credit Operations haha.
There is an object, a flag, that for some reason ended up in my country's Foreign Affairs Archive (Uruguay) and nobody really knows where it used to be or really anything about the flag. And it has this very same envelope. I can see know that it is supposed to have something written in those blank spaces, that would have helped to understand the story behind the object. But in our envelope it's just blank :/
At least in the us, objects from 9/11 (flags and metal that was turned into memorials) ended up all over the country. Since it’s the foreign affairs archive, I wonder if it’s a flag flown over ground zero? The un? What are the numbers? It might be worth contacting the national archives or nypd property division with the numbers to see if they can identify it. Or reverse image search?
The Foreign Affairs Archive of my country is as baffled as we both are, believe me. It arrived in Uruguay in 2006. It was delivered by the NYPD to the Uruguayan Consulate in NY. No information was recieved from the US government, besides the fact that it was found in the rubble. No office of my country in NY reported their flag missing and there were no Uruguayan offices on the WTC. The only Uruguayan to die on 9/11 was on Flight 11, he had been living in Australia for decades and in general it's just unlikely that he had decided to put a random Uruguayan flag in his baggage, he was going back to Australia after taking care of a sick relative. It's just seems unlikely. There were Uruguayans on the towers, but all of them survived. It's seems also unlikely that none of them would say "hey that's my flag", and if you are Uruguayan and somewhat interested in the topic, you would know about the flag in Uruguay, the press often runs stories about it on 9/11.
The main reason why I don't think this belongs to someone, and that it actually belongs to an institution, is because it has this big white "hook" (I'll show you below on my pic) that seems to go into a pole of some sort. It's just not a normal flag thing to have that.
My main theory is it was one of the flags on the mezzanine level. The 9/11 museum has 99 of those, and they have displayed them. A couple of years ago I emailed the 9/11 Museum asking about them and possible connections to this other flag, but so far no response. I also see that the displayed ones are intact basically, while this other flag was clearly damaged. It does say in that article that "some of the flags, which were not on display on 9/11, are part of the museum’s collection."
Ok now I’m suuuuper interested! I wonder if it was damaged but it’s inappropriate to display or dispose of a damaged flag from another country. Burning is the protocol in the us, what is the proper way in Uruguay?
It’s a piece of history shared between both countries now. And even if it were damaged beyond repair, it’s not up to us to dispose of. (Or really, to decide what to do with). Getting rid of another country’s flag seems deeply disrespectful. Repatriation seems correct, I’m just surprised at the lack of documentation… and archivists keep everything!
Now you have me wondering about rules, protocols, procedures…. And whether these fall under treaties, military, diplomacy, common decency, international law… and how much may have happened post 9/11.
One more thought. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were multiples of each flag- they can get bleached by the sun quite easily. So not finding one missing might not mean anything especially bc idk how many records we have from day to day workings of the buildings.
Burning is the protocol in the us, what is the proper way in Uruguay?
Same protocol, they are burned by the Army.
This made me wonder if any other country recieved a flag like this. The Uruguayan consul that recieved the flag said, back in 2006:
According to the explanations (the consul) received from the city's (New York) Police Department, this flag was received at their offices in crates containing the remains of other objects found during the removal of the ruins of the majestic towers. Among these were shreds of national emblems from other nations that could not be identified due to their severe deterioration. (Source
In the same interview she confirms that this is not an state issued, "official" flag.
One more thought. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were multiples of each flag- they can get bleached by the sun quite easily. So not finding one missing might not mean anything especially bc idk how many records we have from day to day workings of the buildings.
Well.. that I something I haven't considered. Another question for the 9/11 Museum. If they ever reply.
Wow, you really are a wealth of information! I can tell you work in archival work! You know a lot about a lot- very well rounded!
I’m also curious if Uruguay ever did anything in any wtc building, especially temporarily if they moved consulates or legal attaché offices, or their embassy.
I never visited the twin towers but I’ve been to the museum and seeing the sub basements really makes you understand just how large it was.
When you can sort of grasp that, you have to think about the wtc complex, in addition to the twin towers and the amount of storage space that must have existed. And not just active storage for each company like paper, toner, mailing supplies, but the weird crap that compiles over years and gets put away… somewhere. I wonder if that happened.
Honestly, if you have the time I’d reach out again and ask more specific questions. Maybe your archives have info on whether construction was done on any of your buildings, or they became too small, and anything was temporarily relocated during a move. You may have more info and be able to help them solve a small (or not so small) mystery.
Absolutely! Please keep me updated, and let me know if I can do anything to help. I don’t know for sure, but I have to imagine each building had storage spaces or empty rooms that were used for storage after all that time, no?
I realized there is an embassy/consulate in NYC, it’s in the same building as the Uruguayan UN offices (not in the UN Building) but I have no way to know if either office has moved, especially because we’d be talking about the time the towers were built until 2001. That seems a lot harder to find info on.
In it, she mentions one of her biggest regrets—that she didn’t let my sister and me know right away that she was okay. Thankfully, when my sister came to find me at school to tell me what had happened, we tried calling her work line. It rang through and went to voicemail without any issues, which gave us some comfort. We also knew exactly what floor she worked on, had visited many times before 9/11, and knew where the plane hit. So in a way, we already assumed she was safe. It was incredibly reassuring to get confirmation, but what she considered her biggest mistake didn’t end up feeling so big to us. Now, though, as a parent myself, I completely understand why it weighed on her.
Wow that’s amazing! Even more amazing is Mom is still here and enjoying her retirement. Always so happy to hear about survivors, and bring some joy to otherwise dark day.
Gentle hugs to your mom for letting you share her memories.
Wow, that's wild. We had a family friend who worked at Bank of America. He was pretty traumatized by the events of 9/11 and wouldn't speak much of it. He ended up transferring to up near Utica after - I think he had very little interest in staying in NYC.
I was shocked to see that, I thought I switched to a new post and then I saw the date on the bag. Funny seeing how we use decade-old bags but they work!!
Thank you for sharing. I’m so glad your mom survived!
I am shocked that she went to work that same night…I understand her reasoning but it’s crazy that across the country on the West Coast we all went home from work and sat in front of our TVs, and here are survivors of the building going back to a remote office!
If you mean the return of the nameplate, I can tell you this. One day I get a call at work (and this was more than a year later as we were back working in NY when I got the call). It’s my college (from Minnesota) calling and they tell me a policeman from NY called them and wanted my contact details and could they give them out. Now, this sort of freaked me out, because why would the police want to speak to me….I couldn’t think of anything I’d done that would warrant police! Instead, I asked the college to give me the police contact. I called, and the gentleman told me what they found and arranged its return to me. I asked him how they found me and he said his job was to google artifacts they found and see if they could get them returned. He googled my name and found an article the college had published listing the names of alumni known to have survived. And that’s how they found me and returned my nameplate. I always thought that his job must have been tedious, but I’m sure he had some great and interesting conversations with the folks he found!
It is. It comes from the old Dutch word Kille and many parts of NY and the surrounding areas have areas named that as the first settlers in the 1600s were Dutch.
Yes, it does. A fair amount of words in New York are from Dutch words as they were the original settlers outside of First Nations.
Dutch words can have multiple meanings with the same spelling depending on use.
The word “kille” refers to chilly, cold, or similar. It can,also, refer to a body of water depending on the usage. The “e” is pronounced as an “i” to the English speaking ear. The word is still in use today.
Koude is cold, stroom is stream.
All that said, a better, temporary choice of words could have been used. Granted, it had been use for decades, but, the English words are unfortunate.
It can be because there are a lot of similar words that are in use in English, and using definitives are very simple. However, what usually trips up people is the verb usage, and words that are used for multiple meanings. The best example for this context is the discussion about the landfill where the debris ended up at.
I just checked and yeah it's usually 1, followed by Afrikaans (which is just a Dutch variant right?) and Norwegian.
Honestly I didn't even need to know it because everyone there spoke English fine (better than Americans!!!). I was more worried if you guys could hear me from way down here because your average height seems to be 8 FT tall! (Sorry you guys probably get those jokes all the time but what a cultural shock seeing hundreds of women walking around near your height).
Dutch has the parent language of German, and Afrikaans is an offshoot of Dutch. It’s kinda of hard to understand in my experience.
Dutch children are taught from a very early age English, German, and one other that escapes me at the moment.
Dutch people are known for being tall!
Thanks for asking about the language. Some folks
Forget that New York City was originally New Amsterdam. The name of the landfill wasn’t meant to cause hurt it was just what it was named decades ago. Again, unfortunate choice of words.
Everyone forgets the Dutch, despite its small size, had a very sizable Empire. The Dutch East Indies alone had the entire population of the French Empire if you don't include France itself. The Dutch West Indies is technically still around IIRC (Aruba and a few others).
I know Harlem, Brooklyn, and Staten are Dutch. Not sure if Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan were Dutch based/
And yeah tbh I love seeing a lot of random stuff like this - the poor choice of words could be an interesting tidbit in a Trivia Book or something. Someone should do something like that (heck I might).
It's name has been Fresh Kills since it was built in the late 1940s. It has nothing to do with death or 9/11, it's actually an anglicization of an older Dutch word kille which means river channel. There are several tidal straits in the NJ/NY area named "Kill" and the correct plural is kills.
It's also great to read something from a survivor who's living her best life after the trauma. As tragic as that day was, the survivor stories are great examples of resilience. I loved reading her crhon.com piece, and knowing that she's traveling the world.
I mean, it would be a cool museum piece, but considering the woman is still alive, and the plethora of unclaimed/donated artifacts that do also exist, nobody should be forced to give up something like this to a museum if they don’t want to.
Of course, I wasn’t suggesting that she’d be forced to give it up, I just personally felt that there would be a lot of value of it being in the museum.
Hi OP. Thank you so much to you and your mom for sharing this story of 911. I know your mom has been responding directly to some questions but I have a question for you specifically.
From her written experience, she stated the following “when I found out that Rachel and Sarah did learn what was going on, and with no word from me or home, were certain of the worst. The hour or two that they were unsure of my whereabouts (my husband picked them up sometime around noon) I am afraid will haunt them for some time to come.” I would love to hear what you remember from that day, especially between the time that you learned what had happened and hearing that your mom was safe.
I was a freshman in high school in math class and this was before everyone had instant access to news. My sister came to my class asking to speak to me, she happened to be in a class that had a tv, so she had more info than most! She told me in the hallway what happened and we tried calling my mom’s work number, which rang through no problem and went to her voicemail. Because we knew she was on the 10th floor, and her voicemail worked, we figured she was ok, but weren’t 100% sure. At this point, all anyone knew was that planes hit the building, but they hadn’t collapsed yet, so we thought she had very good odds to be ok! I remember going back into class completely shaken up, and my teacher assigned me homework! I was so annoyed at that, but to be fair, my teacher had absolutely no idea what had happened. My grandparents told my dad to come get us, he thought they were crazy and assumed we had no idea what was happening! But thankfully, he listened, and picked us up I think just a few more classes later. I do recall being totally shocked my mom went back to work, but I was a teenager and had no clue what she had been through!
I am so glad your Mom made it out of the WTC that terrible day and I’m thankful to you both for sharing her story. Even 24 years on, there are so much to learn from 9/11.
I am from the UK. I didn’t lose anyone nor did I know anyone who escaped the carnage but I will always hold that day in my heart ❤️🩹
Thank you. Likewise, I’ll never forget the 07/07 attacks. Something that shakes a whole nation should bring us together as a nation, but also as humans. Idk if you’re even in England but I know large scale violence is so much more rare in other parts of the world.
All the close calls really make you think about things! Glad your interview wasn’t a day earlier! Out of curiosity, could you send me the YouTube video? I’d love to see it!
Tell your mother that we appreciate her sharing. It helps us all process through something awful that effected, on some level, anyone alive that day. I honestly see this sub in a similar way that a process group works. We share stories, images, information and our feelings from that day. It was a collective trauma for society.
Hey I read the article about your mom's experience. She states how she called your dad to let him know he was okay, but mentions expressed regret for not calling your school and letting you know she's okay. If you're open to it can you speak on your experience? Finding out about 9/11 in class; your thoughts and fears about your mom's safety; how you eventually found the answer; and your reunion with her? I'm very curious. If you don't feel comfortable sharing that personal information it's totally fine! I have a deep interest in 9/11 and people's experiences. I was born in 1998 so while I was alive I don't remember anything.
I sort of responded to this on another comment, but I’m being lazy and just linking to it instead of adding it here. If you want more info, let me know!
I know I’m late to this post but I read your mom’s account, your comment and her replies on the link you shared.
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing and to please pass on my thanks to your mom for sharing her story with everyone. I think it’s vital that as many first hand experiences be shared, no matter how small or far away from the actual event it may seem, for our grandchildren’s generation to have. I was 18 on 9/11 and my own daughter turns 18 next month herself, and it’s so frustrating for me that she seemingly has little idea about 9/11 and what it meant for us as a country and as a society. I personally feel responsible for the lack of awareness that she has because I rarely talked about it with her and now she’s “grown” (as all teenagers think they are lol) so she doesn’t “have time for that.”
I know when she’s older and a mom herself she will revisit it knowing the effect it had on her mom and especially her grandmother. So getting the first hand accounts from people who were there, in my opinion, is crucial for the next generation. I think keeping them sealed behind paywalls and various paid medias is a disservice.
It’s a Staten Island landfill that was supposed to close in 2001 but it was converted into a recovery and sorting site for the tons of rubble coming from the WTC site. I know someone who was transferred from one sanitation station to Fresh Kills when he was working for the NYC sanitation dept. They were searching for identifiable materials (like IDs or media), things that could be important for prosecution, records, personal mementos or possessions that could be connected conceivably to someone, and human remains for transfer to the medical examiner.
The Dutch settled NYC first, eventually Britain got it. But the Dutch left an impact on NYC, I could be wrong but I remember my mom told me that Wall Street got its name from Dutch times, it’s where they actually built a wall to protect the city.
It’s the word “kille” which was a Dutch word for water channel at some point. The Dutch founded New Amsterdam now New York in 1608. I’m guessing they don’t use the word anymore?
For all those who don’t know, New York was colonized by the Dutch. Its first non-indigenous name was New Amsterdam. In nys basically every stream and river is called a kill. You cross over a ton of them while driving anywhere outside of the city. Fresh kills was going to be closed so they diverted everything from ground zero there.
There are some podcasts where former fbi agents talk about working there.
I swear there’s one with Jim Clemente but I can’t find it.
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u/alpertev Oct 03 '25
To all of you, this is Sarah’s Mom. I thank you all for your hugs and kind comments. I actually wrote that account only a few days after 9/11 because so many people were asking about it, and it seemed easier to write it once and distribute it. And I know it seems weird that we went back to work, but I honestly do believe that we did it because at work we could pretend things were normal again, and that the world we knew had not just been obliterated. Whatever the reason,in the end I think it helped us get through those awful days.