3,000 Candlelights

3,000 Candlelights


We Will Never Forget

Will you remember me on every 9/11?
Will you light a candle for me?
For without the light we cannot see
What mortal eyes have never seen.

No. Don't weep for me anymore
No. Don't pray for the dead.
For the dead do not need your prayers.

"What I had, I lost; what I saved, I spent; but what I gave, I have."
~ Mattie Terri Shackelford

We Will Never Forget
No! Never ever.
Though the scarlet memories may linger
Though the flowers may wither
But we will never forget
Until this world will be no more.

Nosotros nunca nos Olvidaremos

¿Recordará me usted en cada 9/11? ¿Encenderá usted una vela para mí? Para sin la luz nosotros no podemos ver Qué ojos de mortal nunca han visto.

No. no llora para mí ya No. no ora para el muerto. Para el muerto no necesita sus oraciones.

"Lo que tuve, perdí; lo que salvé, gasté; pero lo que dí, tengo." -Mattie Terri Shackelford

¡Nosotros nunca nos Olvidaremos no! Jamás. Aunque las memorias escarlatas pueden demorar Aunque las flores
pueden marchitar Pero nosotros nunca nos olvidaremos hasta que este mundo no será más.

Nobody spoke a word as the credits rolled on the screen. But I could hear muffled sounds of sobs near me. Lesleen held my right hand tightly until they turned on the lights and we silently left the hall. As we entered our car and sat down, I used my fingers to wipe away her tears. The last time I wept was at the burial of my mother 14 years ago. And I made up my mind never to weep again. I comforted her for a while before I inserted the key into the ignition and jiggled the steering wheel as I turned the key to start the car. I drove out of the parking lot of Main Street Cinema with the head of LesIeen on my shoulder. I was still thinking about the closing scene of the film.
Why should the director include the 19 suicide bombers in his memorial candle lights?
And he showed us their bereaved families also mourning them. Those bastards killed
2,974 innocent people in a day and more died later from the respiratory diseases caused by exposure to WTC dust. Over 40, 000 people, including 10,000 firefighters from Fire Department of New York (FDNY) were exposed to environmental toxins at Ground Zero. And two years later, Ms. Reeve died of mesothelioma. Firefighters Stephen Johnson, Walter Voight and Joseph Costello and EMTs Timothy Keller and Felix Hernandez have died from cancers linked to respiratory diseases. And the unrepentant Al Quaeda is still thinking of repeating the catastrophe. The hijackers don't deserve any memorial. The devils are already burning in hell.
I hissed and turned back from the direction of our home.
"Where are we going?" Lesleen asked.
"To Gound Zero."
"I am tired and I want to go to bed," she said plaintively.
"There is enough time to sleep. Don't worry. I will make sure that you don't have nightmares," I said.
"How?"
"You just relax until we return home," I replied and smiled.

At Ground Zero, we were not alone. A memorial ceremony was in progress and I could count over a 100 people milling around with candlelights. We joined them and a man wearing a brown hat stepped out from the crowd and handed us two white candles.
"You have got a lighter?" The elderly man asked.
"Yes. Thank you sir," I replied.
"But, do you know the real figure of those who died?" He asked us.
"2, 993," I replied.
He shook his head.
He handed me a piece of white paper and we read what was printed on it.

CONFIRMED DEAD: 2948 •
REPORTED DEAD: 24 •
REPORTED MISSING: 24 •
TOTAL: 2996

"But we believe that 3, 000 must have died," he said.
Lesleen and I nodded.
Minus those 19 devils, I said within me.
We lit our candles and joined the procession.