Memories Of Two Giants Struck Down Part 7

August 12th, 2001:

Our second daughter Grace was born at 10:45 PM by Cesarean section; something that was completely unexpected. My wife delivered our first daughter Kate vaginally, but my wife had some complications, and she almost died. This time, the baby was a week overdue and not only that, sometimes my wife would get contractions, and other times not. Our OBGYN told us to get to the hospital ASAP, where we found that the baby's heart was reacting negatively with each contraction; we were in danger of losing our child.

As they wheeled my wife out to the Operating Room, she was gripping my hand...and all I could see was the sheer look of terror on her face. Up until 9/11, it was the most frightening moment of my life. All I could do was stand by helplessly and pray that everything would turn out OK...which it did.

I took my two weeks Paternity Leave, helped out around the house while my wife healed and Katie was getting used to being a big sister. I went back to work in Manhattan the last week of August, at which time Flakjacket's wife delivered their second child and he was now talking two weeks leave. So that left me and Jack in charge of our Department for a few weeks. We had just wrapped up a heavy portion of or business cycle, and all that remained was for me to run a program on my laptop on Friday, and the last of the work would be done. Needless to say, our lunches were longer, and we were taking the whole staff out with us!

My plan was simple: run the program on Friday September 7, validate and download the data on Monday and Tuesday September 10 and 11 while working from home.

(Just in case you're wondering what I used to do for a living, I was in charge of a $28 Million budget that would pay our Branch personnel their semi-annual bonuses.) I developed and designed a database that would automate most of the process, but human intervention was needed to validate and download the data to payroll. This was the first time we were using this database to do this, and I needed to be sure that everything proved to the penny, and that's why I needed to work at home for those two days. I could smoke like a chimney in my home office in the basement, and drink gourmet coffee all day. Plus, I could spend a few more days with the family and our newest addition.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid of plans. Jack was called into a meeting for most of the day on Tuesday the 11th, so someone had to run the place. I told him if I got the work done on the 10th, I'd be in the office on the 11th. If not, I'd still work from home and run the place via mobile.

On Friday, September 7th 2001, I left my office, hopped on the PATH train to Hoboken, picked up a newspaper and an oil-can of Fosters, and sat down on the train. I even ran the damned payroll database on my laptop while I sat drinking a beer and reading the Sports pages. I thought to myself that that in itself was quite humorous.

I had a nice weekend. I worked from home on Monday the 10th; if fact I put some extra hours in so that I could finish my work and get into the office on the 11th. All the data looked pretty solid, and by 8 PM I had finished everything.

I would definitely be in my office on Tuesday, September 11 2001...two blocks from the World Trade Center.