I wonder if you can hear me dear friend. Yes, I am talking to you. I never knew you and yet now, I know beyond everything, that I could not know you better. How did you do it? You knew; you knew as you looked up at a blacked out sun that you were walking in to the birth of your last day. No doubt you thought of your wife. Or about the card your daughter made for you last week in school. Perhaps you thought of something simple--like the last time you and your wife escaped and got lost in a movie, or shared the Sunday paper over coffee and English Muffins. You know, she always caught you stealing those glances. Perhaps you thought of that fence that needed mending; the one you swore you would get to a month ago. But things always got in the way: swim team practice for Jamie, baseball practice for Kevin, and Samantha, your new baby girl, well, she did not sleep much. Since her birth she had fussed the nights away, leaving you dazed, tired, but more in love with life than you ever thought possible.

As you looked around you saw horrors that burned your mind almost as much as the smoke burned your throat. You could have fled. The thought never entered your mind. There were people trapped, people running out of air, running out of space, and running out of time. Perhaps you thought back to when you graduated the academy and the excitement you felt standing there,humbled by the responsibility of knowing that so many would come to count on you==an irony now made a reality by evil, barely comprehensible. Glass was breaking all around you and everyone was running away--everyone except you. You ran in. You ran in. You just wanted to help.

As you rushed in the air was still. As you headed for the stairs your heart raced. You knew where they were. You knew they were unable to come to you. You had to reach them. You fought through debris, smoke and death, trying to find life. You pushed fear and common sense out of your mind. You opened your heart and emptied your soul in sacrifice. I know you heard the snapping of the building as she thundered her wounded state, her last stand, holding out as long as she could to give you a few extra moments. When she had enough, when she could no longer stand:

She fell. She fell.

At that moment, standing at the doorstep of eternity, time froze. Perhaps you said a silent prayer or finally let a tear escape your tired eyes. Maybe you thanked a buddy next to you as you embraced.........

You gave up your life, your kids, and your love......for strangers. Strangers you gave more to than most of us will ever give our closest friend.
You gave up baseball games, swim-meets, and a first birthday so that someone else could blow out a single candle of their own.
You gave up the breeze of your wife’s perfume as you opened the door each night at the end of a long day. You shattered for us the idea that heroes wear sports uniforms or play a guitar.

You rushed in. When everyone else was rushing out, you rushed in.

And our hearts break and our eyes fill with tears because

You Knew.

You knew you were going in for the last time.
You gave your final act of love to someone you did not know.
You gave what can never be repaid.
Honorable, brave, dignified, and courageous beyond forever, you gave us everything.

I do not know who hugs your children tonight, my friend, or who finally fixed the fence. I do not know if Kevin won his baseball game or if Jamie will ever be an Olympic swimmer. I don’t know how your wife keeps going, or how she keeps your memories alive.

I only know that today, I remember you, and will forever remember what you did under that black and blue September sky. Your nation wept for you then but her sadness is eternal.
‘Thank you’ seems so very shallow, but it is what I have. You see, they do not make words for what you gave---and never will.


Only the Brave.

-A.I.B.
c.izapeytric02

I believe this is one of the finest tributes to a friend I have ever read

Thank you both.

Drew

beautiful tribute