Ten Years Later

I can't seem to call it an anniversary, rather, a marker of time and our steps to remember.  I remember trying to get in touch with my son first, perhaps near the hell, with me three thousand miles away.  Oh the relief of hearing his voice.  It was the only call that seemed to go through for me that day, and the next two weeks were spent trying to find everyone we knew.

What I did know, was that 'my firemen'...my guys, were decimated.  I sang to them, I served them in a Queens bar for years.  Two days after, this song just wrote itself...then Uptone Studios in Tacoma donated time, and musicians, singers, kids, dogs...all came in and poured our hearts into this song.

Then mayor of Gig Harbor, Gretchen Wilbert, included the CD in GH's official gift to NYC, and a NY Fireman came a year later, hugged me and said thank you.

In the following few months, after that awful day, everyone was more patient, more kind.  It seemed an enemy without created more of a family within.  Firemen everywhere were treated with respect and loving kindness, for the realization of what they truly lay on the line, every day, with their job.  But we began to forget the heroes in our backyards, and each other, a few months in.

I find myself a bag of emotional guts today.  With our humble thanks to heroes everywhere, the musicians of Tacoma send this out, with love.