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On the 10 year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Mount Shasta’s Marie Mitchell will be at Ground Zero in New York to remember her brother, Paul, a firefighter who was killed inside the World Trade Center that day.
A 31 year resident of Mount Shasta who grew up in Brooklyn, Marie was invited to read the names of 9/11 victims during this year’s memorial ceremony, which Presidents Obama and Bush are planning to attend.
She recently had a letter published in The Legacy Letters, a book of messages from 9/11 family members to their departed loved ones.
Marie said it wasn’t until after her mother passed away, the day before the deadline she’d marked on her calendar, that she decided what she wanted to write.
“I sat down, and it just came out,” she said of the letter she composed to her brother, which was later accepted to be included in the anthology.
Paul Mitchell, a lieutenant with the New York Fire Department, was a 46 year-old husband and the father of two college-aged daughters when he was killed in the south tower 9/11 collapse, Marie said. His remains were never found.
“Life is a blessing, a gift not to be wasted,” said Marie. “My brother died wholeheartedly engaged in service to others – doing what he loved to do.”
Though Paul’s final moments are not clear because of all the chaos on that Tuesday morning in 2001, Marie’s family has pieced them together as best they can.
She said Paul got off duty at 8:20 a.m. and was on his way home when the first hijacked jet hit the World Trade Center. He stopped at a firehouse in Brooklyn to pick up gear and went to the scene from there.
He reached the scene before the towers collapsed, as first responders were rushing in and everyone inside was trying to get out.
“He was last seen with jaws of life and his gear on his back, looking for a flashlight,” Marie said. “He was going to help people get out of an elevator, we think somewhere on the 20th or 21st floor.”
When the planes hit at 8:45 a.m. on the east coast, Marie was just beginning a 5:45 morning meditation at Shasta Abbey.
When the bell rang and the meditation began, Marie said she felt upset and began to cry as if something big was happening, though she dismissed it as something inside herself.
On the 10 year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Mount Shasta’s Marie Mitchell will be at Ground Zero in New York to remember her brother, Paul, a firefighter who was killed inside the World Trade Center that day.
A 31 year resident of Mount Shasta who grew up in Brooklyn, Marie was invited to read the names of 9/11 victims during this year’s memorial ceremony, which Presidents Obama and Bush are planning to attend.
She recently had a letter published in The Legacy Letters, a book of messages from 9/11 family members to their departed loved ones.
Marie said it wasn’t until after her mother passed away, the day before the deadline she’d marked on her calendar, that she decided what she wanted to write.
“I sat down, and it just came out,” she said of the letter she composed to her brother, which was later accepted to be included in the anthology.
Paul Mitchell, a lieutenant with the New York Fire Department, was a 46 year-old husband and the father of two college-aged daughters when he was killed in the south tower 9/11 collapse, Marie said. His remains were never found.
“Life is a blessing, a gift not to be wasted,” said Marie. “My brother died wholeheartedly engaged in service to others – doing what he loved to do.”
Though Paul’s final moments are not clear because of all the chaos on that Tuesday morning in 2001, Marie’s family has pieced them together as best they can.
She said Paul got off duty at 8:20 a.m. and was on his way home when the first hijacked jet hit the World Trade Center. He stopped at a firehouse in Brooklyn to pick up gear and went to the scene from there.
He reached the scene before the towers collapsed, as first responders were rushing in and everyone inside was trying to get out.
“He was last seen with jaws of life and his gear on his back, looking for a flashlight,” Marie said. “He was going to help people get out of an elevator, we think somewhere on the 20th or 21st floor.”
When the planes hit at 8:45 a.m. on the east coast, Marie was just beginning a 5:45 morning meditation at Shasta Abbey.
When the bell rang and the meditation began, Marie said she felt upset and began to cry as if something big was happening, though she dismissed it as something inside herself.
It wasn’t until she was at work a few hours later that she heard about what was happening.
Marie said she knew instantly that her brother was there, and as the towers crumbled, she felt he was gone.
Air travel was difficult, but with the help of a local doctor who flew Maria as far as San Francisco, Marie managed to get home to be with her family and see the destruction herself.
As she stood at the edge of the acres of wreckage, firefighters heard Marie’s brother was in the rubble. They took a bouquet of flowers she was holding and used a cherry-picker to drop them in.
Though she didn’t do any digging during the two months she spent there, Marie said the heavy, noxious dust caused her to develop asthma that still affects her today. Some of her friends who lived in an apartment adjacent to the World Trade Center developed cancer and have since died from the disease, which is believed to have been caused by airborne contaminants.
Since the trauma of losing her brother and many friends and acquaintances in the tragedy, Marie has become involved in a number of 9/11-inspired projects. She regularly works with the non-profits Voices of September 11th, Hold the Door for Others, and Tuesday’s Children.
She has also learned all she can about trauma and teaches disaster psychology classes to civilian first responders.
“I pray, in my own way, to be able to do the same,” Marie said. “As my own experience and feelings sort themselves out and heal, I am grateful to be able to find ways to be of service to others.”
The Ground Zero memorial
Marie has attended 9/11 memorial services in New York 8 of the past 10 years.
This year will be particularly memorable because the official 9/11 memorial will be dedicated. Two huge cascades of water, each occupying the square footprint of one of World Trade Center towers, will begin churning and will continue forever.
Inscribed in a bronze strip surrounding the cascades will be the 2,983 names of those killed in the 9/11 attacks, including those at the Pentagon and on United Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Paul Mitchell’s name will be among them.
As a family member of one of the 9/11 victims, Marie will be among the first to experience the memorial, which is only partially finished and will one day feature an underground museum on the site.
Legacy Letters
You can find The Legacy Letters containing Marie’s letter and those of dozens of others in bookstores or online at Amazon. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to Tuesday’s Children, which provides support for the families of 9/11 and others affected by global terrorism.
Shasta Lake memorial
You can watch the New York memorial ceremony on television, or if you’re looking for a way to commemorate 9/11 closer to home, Shasta Lake City hosts a ceremony each year at the town’s own memorial, which includes a piece of the 9/11 rubble. Hot dogs and drinks will be available at 5:30 p.m. and the program will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11.
