Collegedale woman comforts the grieving
When she heard the news, Collegedale resident Jan Gatlin said, she knew she had to go to New York City.
She arrived Oct. 17, while the rubble still smoldered, the air still smelled of death, and dusty black sludge still filled the street gutters.
She thought she’d stay only a few weeks, offering assistance to rescuers, doing anything to lend a hand. She left six months later.
“I’ll never forget it, as long as I live,” she said.
As a volunteer with Adventist Community Services of Greater New York, Ms. Gatlin, 41, worked as a grief counselor for weary police officers, firefighters and construction crews.
Inside St. Paul’s Chapel, a Catholic church near Ground Zero, Ms. Gatlin comforted weeping men and women, including a New York Fire Department officer who lost 12 firefighters — the entire roster of those who worked at his financial-district station.
“There’s times that you’d just stand there and hold the arm of a fireman and he’s just crying,” she said. “It’s hard to stand there and see a man cry. But you gain strength.”
A year since the World Trade Center’s sky-scraping towers crumbled, Ms. Gatlin said she’s managed to draw new strength
from the national tragedy.
“It seems like all of humanity is tied together,” she said. “If one falls down, the next one beside him is the key, he’s the one to lift up that brother or sister.”
She returned to Collegedale in March with a newfound confidence and a new perspective on her life.
“I’m not afraid to reach out to someone who is in a lot of pain,” she said. “There’s so much hope to give. I can be of value to someone who’s hurting. It’s helped me to come out of my own so-called box and stop thinking, ‘I’d better protect myself.’ Now I’m not afraid to meet something head on.”