Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Alison Crowther
For a while, he was known only as The Man in the Red Bandana, a stranger who saved the lives of at least 12 people by ushering them to safety after terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He died when the tower collapsed.
His name was Welles Crowther. He was 24.
He was Alison Crowther’s son.
Like a lot of people who lost loved ones in the attack, she wanted to be there when the 9/11 Museum was dedicated on May 15, 2014. But tickets were limited, and a lottery was used.
Months before the event, a museum official called and asked if she was going to attend. “If we win tickets,” replied Crowther, a Realtor in New York. A second call followed with the same question. Then several more, all nibbling around the edges of her plans for the dedication.
Finally she was told Obama might attend. She had met the president before, at another event with 9/11 families, and now she was instructed to expect a call from Szuplat. The speechwriter wanted more information about her son and what he did that day.
“In those awful moments after the South Tower was hit, some of the injured huddled in the wreckage of the 78th floor,” Obama said at the dedication. “The fires were spreading. The air was filled with smoke. It was dark, and they could barely see. It seemed as if there was no way out.
“And then there came a voice — clear, calm, saying he had found the stairs. A young man in his 20s, strong, emerged from the smoke, and over his nose and his mouth he wore a red handkerchief.”
Crowther said she was “completely overwhelmed by what he said.”
“I was just so deeply touched that Welles would be remembered that way, by the president of the United States, on the world stage,” she said.
Afterward, she heard from friends who had seen the speech or media coverage of it, including one who told her she was on the front page of newspapers in Paris, in a photo, being hugged by Obama.
“It was just the most astonishing experience,” she said.