Columnist Sandy Thompson: Attack prevents chance to say goodbye to sister

Sandy Thompson

Saturday, Sept. 15, 2001 | 7:36 a.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com.

TUESDAY'S ATTACK on America became deeply personal.

Terrorists caused unimaginable human and property destruction. Terrorists stopped America in its tracks. Terrorists prevented me from saying goodbye to my sister.

On Monday morning, a day before the horrific attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I was awakened from a sound sleep. It took a few seconds to recognize the voice as my youngest sister and longer to comprehend what she was saying. "Cathy passed away this morning," she said, her voice cracking.

Cathy was our sister. She was 46. She was suddenly gone. That couldn't be. Just the week before, I spoke to her about coming to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving.

I was numb. It wasn't possible she was dead. The fourth of six children, Cathy was one of the most caring people in the world. She was a Mom with a capital M. She was extremely close to her 30-year-old daughter and her two sons in their 20s.

I needed to go home. It was becoming an eerily familiar journey. Within the last few years I had returned twice to my southeastern Pennsylvania home to bury my father and then my mother. Like Cathy, they died in September. Like Cathy, they died at a young age.

Still in a bit of shock late Monday morning, I booked a flight to Washington for Tuesday afternoon. From there I planned to rent a car and drive the rest of the way home.

On Tuesday morning I awoke to another numbing, shocking series of events. Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the twin towers collapsed. If you've ever seen those magnificent towers, you can't imagine how they could ever crumble. It took seven years to build the towers; it took one hour to destroy them. More importantly, it's difficult to comprehend the massive loss of life -- people who innocently went to work that day.

In the late '70s, I worked in lower Manhattan. Every day when I exited my subway stop in front of the World Trade Center, I looked up to see the twin towers. I had been in the restaurant on top of the World Trade Center when the lights went out in New York. That night, firefighters and policemen escorted us down stairs and then into elevators run by special generators.

On Tuesday, I grieved for my sister and I grieved for those killed in the terrorist attacks. Then came word that all flights throughout the country were grounded. How was I going to get home?

The terrorists not only destroyed innocent American lives, they touched all aspects of Americans' life. Travel came to a halt. Federal Express and the U.S. Postal Service cut their services. Although a minute consideration in view of real tragedies, I couldn't even send my daughter's medical prescription to her at school in Los Angeles. A postal worker told me that if I wanted her to get the medication, I should drive it there myself.

Most Americans take life and their comfortable lifestyles for granted. This past week we were brutally reminded of how precious life is. So many people did not get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. There are gaping holes not only in our buildings, but in our hearts. I was going home to say goodbye to a gentle, loving sister. My journey was brutally halted by animals who do not value human life. My pain pales in comparison to the families of victims, but I hurt nonetheless. It's not fair. It's not fair that other terrorists and their supporters are roaming free when so many innocent people have been literally incinerated. Why didn't intelligence sources have an inkling of such a heinous terrorist attack? We didn't waste any time identifying these people after the fact. Why weren't they on a watch list before?

On Friday, as my sister was being laid to rest, I was 3,000 miles away. My heart, though, was there with her, as well as with her children and my youngest sister.

I am deeply sorry I could not be with you.