2021 - August - CDT - Helping Hands

By: Jackie Naginey Hook
Thursday, August 12, 2021

I’ll always remember where I was. Like many other Tuesday mornings, I was following along with my Rodney Yee morning yoga DVD while our infant son lay next to me. When I finished, the TV was on NBC and the Today Show. The image on the screen was one of the Twin Towers with smoke billowing from it. Alarmed, I called to my husband, John, and he came into the room.

On most Tuesday mornings at this time, John would have already been in Manhattan. But this day, he was going in late because he had worked into the early morning at an event the night before. As we stood there watching the screen, we saw the plane hit the other tower. I vividly remember John’s and my eyes locking with a look of, “What next?”

While we tried to maintain a level of calm for our five-year-old daughter, John called his friend’s office who worked in a building next to the Twin Towers and encouraged them to leave. He called his coworkers and told them not to go into the office. Like many others in the world, we waited and watched. We waited, watched, prayed, stayed away and hoped for the best.

But while we were waiting, others were springing into action. Emergency workers were rushing to the scene to help. The courage, compassion and integrity that it takes to run towards danger is truly beyond me. Yes, I’ve stepped in the way of danger when my children were at risk, but as a professional who chooses to do it on a daily basis, I’m in awe and full of immense gratitude.

While holding that gratitude and in honor of the lives lost on September 11, 2001, Koch Funeral Home has joined with Alpha Fire Company to create a 20th Anniversary 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony. As two organizations whose missions are to care for and serve our community, this effort is designed to provide a meaningful space for neighbors to come together and remember.

Koch Funeral Home Supervisor and Funeral Director F. Glenn Fleming and Alpha Fire Company President Shawn Kauffman serve and care for this community. Fleming has spent more than 50 years honoring lives. And Kauffman believes strongly in first responders honoring those whose lives were lost.

The Ceremony will include guest speakers and a memorial ringing of the fire company bell at six specific moments recognizing the events of that tragic day. Afterwards, guests can tour the fire station and meet local first responders. Light food and drink will be available.

We hope you join us on Saturday, September 11, 2021 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Alpha Fire Company, 400 W. Beaver Avenue, State College, PA 16801.

Leave a comment
Name*:
Email:
Comment*:
Please enter the numbers and letters you see in the image. Note that the case of the letters entered matters.

Comments

Please wait

Previous Posts

2024 - February - Gazette

How Old Would You Be? How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were? When I ask this question, I get a variety of reactions. Some people laugh and say, “I’d be the age I am.” Others loo...

2024 - January - CDT - Helping Hands - Grief as a Funeral Director

Grief as a Funeral Director Ten years ago, on February 1, 2014, my wife Margie died. We were married for 50 years and eight months, and I still think of her every day. I always have a picture of h...

2024 - January - Gazette - Love Your Heart

Love Your Heart Children can be great role models for adults, in all kinds of ways. For example, when it comes to the grief journey, I have a special place in my heart for the funeral and memorial...

2023 - December - Gazette - Let's Remember

Let’s Remember Just a few days ago our family received a large tin of popcorn as a holiday gift. One-half of the tin was filled with caramel corn, one-quarter with buttered popcorn, and one-quarte...

2023 - December - CDT - Learning to Live: What's Your Story?

Expectant Waiting It was Christmas Eve 1993 and my husband, John, and I were spending the holidays at my parent’s house in Austin, Texas. I was doing my daily meditation when these words came into...

2023 - November - Gazette - Dare! Silence

A lot goes on in the silence.” These are words I often share because silence is a big part of my work. For example, I ask for moments of silence when officiating at memorial and funeral services. D...

2023 - Nov - CDT - Helping Hands - Healing Through the Holidays

Healing through the Holidays Author, poet, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, wrote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I witness this every day in my work ...

2023 - October - Gazette - Memories Become Treasures

Memories Become Treasures I was visiting with my mom and dad a couple of weeks ago and we started talking about my dad’s parents, who I lovingly called Grandma and Grandad. My mom shared two memor...

2023 - September - Centered - Arriving Where I Started

I love the T.S. Eliot quote, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets: “We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for t...

2023 - September - Gazette - Existing Elsewhere

A few years ago I sat with a handful of adults’s in a grief gathering and listened as one mother shared her story. She told us about the moments before and after her young child’s unexpected and su...