Dan Schlesinger's 9/11 Remebrance Site

      On 9/11, I heard screaming and yelling  downstairs from my apartment.  I looked out my apartment window and saw everyone transfixed, pointing south towards the WTC where the first plane had just hit..
     I grabbed my camera, called my wife, jumped into a cab and told the driver to make a beeline towards the WTC. At first I thought some fool in a small plane lost control and made a fatal mistake.

     A few blocks from the WTC, the cab driver refused to go further and told us to get out. Dina waited where the cab driver left us,and I ran towards the WTC, when the second plane hit.
I had no idea what was really happening, and kept running towards the towers, when the first tower collapsed.  At first I thought that part of the building had fallen, and the dense smoke was obscuring the rest of it. Police were cordoning off the area and told everyone to leave immediately. I ignored them and tried to get closer.

      Then ,I watched in horror what seemed like a slow-motion movie....huge chunks of the building spinning in the air as the building collapsed before me in a huge cloud of smoke. I was momentarily paralyzed, and couldn't lift my camera to take a photo of the final plunge.  Walking back in shock, I saw people walking or running away from the area. It was surreal. Most  people I saw seemed to be calmly walking away, while others were yelling and screaming with terror.

        At that time, Dina and I had a vocational school which provided computer network certification courses. We offered a scholarship to FDNY firefighter and first responder , Kevin Shea. His body-- battered and neck broken, was pulled unconscious from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

        A true hero, he was the only one of 12 members of his Upper West Side firehouse to make it out alive. A hero again in 2017, Kevin donated his kidney to a total stranger--a special education teacher who had what would have been a fatal kidney disease....except for Kevin's generosity.