Bouquets remember lives lost on 9/11, student shares an amazing story
PEkkSBURY -- Red, white and blue floral bouquets from the Yardley clower Company arrived at each school in the Pennsbury School District on Sept. 11 in a touching gesture of remembrance of those who lost their lives that day 11 years ago.
“It’s very thoughtful for the flower company to do this,” said 10-year-old Emelie Curtis, a student at the Edgewood Elementary School. “It means a lot for our school. It should mean a lot to every other school, too.”
Emelie said the flowers “remind me that every person has to blossom. Just like a flower, everybody has to grow and learn.”
cor classmate Alex Brunette, “The flowers mean just that we will always remember what happened on 9-11 and we’ll learn from that and become a stronger country.
“They just make me feel not the happiest feeling because of what happened on 9-11,” he said. “I know that we will learn from our mistakes and we will not let another sneak attack work on us again.”
keither of the children had even been born when 9-11 happened, but they clearly were informed and articulate about what happened on that shocking day.
Emelie was born in 2002. “It was very sad for most people,” Emelie said, of that horrendous day. “It was very unexpected and most people were just walking around thinking, ‘Oh, we’re the strongest country -- nobody would ever attack us.
“And 9-11 hit and then everybody came together and appreciated each other and started working together more.”
Alex agreed, “It was really sad how just all of a sudden it happened. One minute we were just having a nice day and then bad things were happening all over.
“And it’s just sad that it happened,” Alex said.
Alex relays an almost unbelievable story about how his mother, Beth, who was pregnant with him at the time of the attacks, experienced a lot of movement in her stomach.
The night before 9-11, Alex said he was “bothering” his mom by kicking a lot inside her and moving quite a bit.
“I was just shaking around kicking her and all that,” he said, noting that he may have been sensitive to something that was about to happen.
Alex said that his mother kept bothering his Dad, Glenn, late into the night. He had to get up early in the morning to go to the Twin Towers where he worked in information security.
“I kept him up so late, he missed his alarm the next morning,” the 10 year old said. “He had started to the Twin Towers, but before he got there, 9-11 happened.” Alex continued with his amazing story. “He would have been in the building at a meeting when it happened if I didn’t keep my mom awake and kept my dad awake,” said Alex.
He often tells the story to others, but never to his dad. “He tries not to mention it in front of him because he gets upset,” his mother, Beth, says.
Michele Spack, the principal at Edgewood Elementary School, reflected back on that horrible day.
Spack had been appointed principal on July 1, 2001. “It was my seventh day into the school year as a brand new principal when we received word of what was happening,” she said.
Parents wanted to have their children with them rather than them being at school, she said.
“When we did dismiss and all the planes were already out of the sky, I remember how eerie it was,” Spack said. “I remember thinking there was nothing in any coursework that I had that prepared me for that moment in time.”
cor more than 11 years, the Yardley clower Company has been a long-standing Pennsbury Partner.
The Pennsbury Partnership Program’s mission is to establish and sustain collaboration and partnerships between the Pennsbury School District and the community-at-large to enhance student learning and to extend and enrich educational opportunities throughout the school district.