Let's Roll! by Lisa Beamer

Author:Lisa Beamer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
ISBN: 9781414362687
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2002-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Shortly after noon United Airlines called. Still sitting on the corner of Todd’s and my bed, I picked up the telephone on the nightstand.

“Mrs. Beamer, my name is Nick Leonard from United Airlines. I’m sorry to inform you that your husband was a passenger aboard Flight 93 that has crashed in Pennsylvania.” “

I know,” I replied calmly. I didn’t break down crying hysterically. I didn’t yell or scream or make any outburst at all. The United representative sounded almost surprised that I was so calm. I didn’t fully realize it then, but God was already giving me an incredible sense of peace.

The United rep gave me a telephone number where he could be reached and assured me that United would help us in every way possible. It was a number I’d call often in the days ahead.

I put down the phone and slowly nodded to the friends who had gathered around me. “That was United,” I said quietly, “and they said that Todd was definitely on that plane….” My voice trailed off. No more words were necessary. Brian Mumau dropped his head to his chest. Tears streamed down all our faces, but there were few emotional outbursts. Everyone in the room had already known in his or her heart of hearts that Todd was gone.

Although the United Airlines representative made no reference to terrorist activity aboard the flight, there was never a thought in my mind that this was a random accident. No one around me thought that the crash was due to an equipment failure or pilot error. Almost immediately reports circulated on the news that federal aviation authorities had reason to believe that the plane had been hijacked in a similar manner as those that had struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. There were even reports that some people had made cellular telephone calls from the plane before it had gone down.

Strangely, I felt some sense of relief in knowing that Todd had been aboard a plane that had crashed without hitting a building or another national landmark, causing further death and destruction or calamity in our country. Tragic as it was, the plane had gone down in a reclaimed field that had once been a coal strip mine and was now a grassy meadow in a rural area of Pennsylvania. It was the only terrorist attack that day in which no lives were lost on the ground as a result of the crash.

In Washington, people with stunned expressions streamed into the streets as many government office buildings were evacuated. Few people panicked, though all over the city people scampered to their vehicles, trying to get home to their loved ones. They often found familiar highways blocked by authorities or clogged with traffic.

Peggy Beamer tried desperately to reach Todd’s younger sister, Michele, who worked at George Washington University, not far from the Pentagon. The phone circuits in the nation’s capital were jammed. Peggy was eventually able to contact Michele by means of e-mail. Meanwhile, Todd’s Aunt

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