This post is part of a larger project to remember and pay tribute to the victims of the World Trade Center Tragedy five years ago today. You can read about the project and the other tributes to victims here .
Ken.
I don't know how to pay a proper tribute to you. I don't know you. I won't know you. You passed away from this world at 46, in American Airlines Flight 11 in New York City while I stood on the grass of Memorial Mall in West Lafayette, Indiana five years ago today.
I didn't know then that you were leaving behind your mother, Eileen McKenna Waldie, your four siblings, your wife Carol, your four children, and countless friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances, all whose lives you touched.
On this day five years ago, the picture in my head was the buildings with the smoke pouring from them. Today the picture in my head is yours.
But it is not the one posted above. It is my own concoction of you in a tuxedo, boutonniere on your lapel, beaming, at your son's wedding. It's conjured up of you walking your dog down your shady neighborhood street, asking "What's up?" to whomever you pass. It incorporates you hanging out in a grassy center field, perched on a lawn chair, watching a little league game. Fashioned from countless hours of troubleshooting issues as a senior quality engineer, which earned you the nickname of 911 at work, "Just call Ken, he'll straighten it out," your picture takes shape in my mind. The image is rounded out by the tireless encouragement you, # 44.5, gave to #44, your daughter Meredith, your basketball star.
That's the image I'll have of you today. The image I'll remember you with. I won't know the story of your first day of school, or how you met your wife, or if you cried when your babies were born. But there are others who remember those parts of your well-lived life.
I will pay a tribute to you this day, in admiration of the small snippets I do know of you, in the hopes that some suffering is eased by the remembrance of you, Kenneth Waldie of Methuen, Massachusetts.
5 comments:
Bridget, I think you did Ken justice - a beautiful tribute to an ordinary man whose life was full and unfairly cut short by misguided fanatics. I admire you for taking the time to remember him and all the others who died on this date 5 years ago.
A touching tribute!
I hope his children are doing ok. I know how hard it is. I was 5 when my Dad died, I was 8 when the towers fell.
Thank you for remembering Ken.
that was lovely
I work with Ken’s daughter Meredith she has to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. I have never met her father but I can tell you both her parents did a wonderful job raising her. I look at her everyday and my heart breaks, but the stories she tells us about both of her parent could keep you laughing all day.
Bridget just the fact that you took the time to look into Ken’s life is amazing you did a wonderful job!! I am a bit older than Meredith a few days ago we where talking and she said my mother is my best friend!!! I had to turn away so she wouldn’t see the tears running down my face as a mother of two girls I can only hope and pray my girls will say that some day. Thank you for writing this the Waldie family is just that a real family that a lot of people wish they had.
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