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COURAGEOUS |
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Hellen Ocasio-Walfall
New York City, September 11, 2001 |
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| 'Children, Mothers and Love' |
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There were 473 Standard Chartered Bank employees working at
7 World Trade on September 11, 2001. They survived. Thousands
of others died on that day. Each and every survivor has a unique
and compelling story to tell about the events of that day. Each
and every one will bear hidden scars from that terrible day
for the rest of their lives. Nothing can be the same.
On that day, many found solace in the company of their colleagues.
Many found comfort knowing that they were not going through
that day alone. Shared experience and unity of purpose sustained
them. How do I know? The Bank has assembled an album of photographs
of the people working at the Bank's Disaster Recovery Site in
New Jersey. You can see it in their eyes—on that day—and
the very long days and nights that followed.
They survived and they were not alone. More importantly, they
had something to do; they had purpose. They had their work.
They—and their families—would survive.
In the days and weeks that followed September 11, everyone exchanged
recollections. They shared their experiences. Why? To try and
understand. To make sense of it.
One story had greater life than all the others. It was told
and retold and never lost its power. It was also a story that
was bigger than the Bank's 473 collective experiences. It was
greater than the sum of the whole. Why? Because it transcends
one individual's experience. Its meaning is universal. It is
about everything that terror is not about. It is about children
and mothers and love.
Hellen Ocasio-Walfall joined Standard Chartered Bank in New
York in 1999. In September, 2001 she was a Data Center Manager
working on the 26th floor of 7 World Trade.
Hellen is the mother of two children. In 2001, her son was four
years old and her daughter three. September 11, 2001 was the
second day of the fall session of the daycare centre located
on the ground floor of 5 World Trade Center Plaza. It was the
second year her son had attended the daycare centre, but the
first day at daycare for her daughter. Hellen had asked Sharon
Wilson, a friend, to help her take the children to the daycare
centre. Her daughter was anxious. If she became too upset, Sharon
could watch her son.
The daycare centre was located on the ground floor of 5 World
Trade Center Plaza. The front of the daycare centre was a wall
of glass facing the North Tower. The North Tower was approxiately
30 feet from the windows of the daycare centre.
Hellen and Sharon arrived at the daycare centre only minutes
before the first plane hit the North Tower. At 8:48 a.m., when
the plane hit the North Tower, they were near the front door
clocking in the children. At the time, there were 20 adults
at the daycare–many of them parents dropping off their
children.
“At first, all we heard was this deafening sound. I remember
one parent saying, ‘If that was thunder, we're in a lot
of trouble.' It was an incredibly loud sound... And then we
started to see debris falling onto the plaza in front of the
daycare. That's when we knew that a plane must have hit the
Tower. But we all thought it must have been an accident.”
A Trade Center custodian was running across the plaza looking
for shelter from the falling debris. One of the parents kicked
open the door of the daycare centre to let him in.
“I have to say that Charlene Melville, the director of
the daycare centre, and all her staff went into action immediately.
The first concern was to keep the children calm. There were
20 children in the daycare centre at the time. There were 7
babies two to five months of age and 13 children aged two to
five years old...”
There was no panic. The goal was to evacuate the children as
quickly as possible. “The first thing was to gather all
the children at the front door of the daycare centre. When they
were all present and accounted for, we each took a child in
our arms or by the hand and headed out onto the Plaza... My
daughter was very frightened. She held onto me very tightly.
She wasn't crying, but she was very scared and confused. My
son became very quiet. But he did exactly as he was told...
We walked through the debris and the bodies to the front door
of a church not far from the daycare centre.”
When they reached the church, they found the front door locked.
At that point, the second plane hit the South Tower. “We
still thought it must be an accident. It never crossed our minds–any
of us–that it was anything else...”
They decided to try and get the children as far away from the
Towers as possible. They began heading for the South Street
Seaport. By this time, the streets were crowded with people
trying to escape the Trade Center complex.
“There was a grocery store on the way to the Seaport. I
went in to get us some water. That's when I noticed the shopping
carts. I took two shopping carts and pushed them out onto the
street. We lay the small babies in the bottom of the cart with
one baby in the seat. We then continued on toward the Seaport...
A little while later, we passed a bar. There was a television
on in the window of the bar. We stopped for a few minutes to
watch the news reports. That's when we learned that it wasn't
an accident. That's when we really started to feel frightened.
If it was an attack, what might happen next?”
One of the daycare centre teachers lived in Manhattan. She suggested
that they all go to her home. Others wanted to get off Manhattan
Island. Hellen shot down that idea. She thought the bridges
could be a target. At one point, the crowds were so thick that
part of the group became separated. That group eventually found
shelter at St. Vincent's Hospital. “We finally reached
a church at Avenue D and 12th Street. They invited us in. They
already had cots set up and soup for the children.”
The parents of most of the children at the daycare centre worked
in the Towers. Once Hellen's group had found shelter, their
thoughts turned to the children of those parents.
“All day, all we thought about or talked about were the
parents of the children. Had they been killed? What would we
do if they didn't show up?... We kept the children busy and
quiet. Between us, we decided we'd adopt whatever children might
have lost their parents... We stayed at the church until 7 p.m.
That's when the last parents were reunited with their children.
“My husband had a terrible time. The telephones were out
so he couldn't reach me and I couldn't reach him. Finally, we
each got messages to my mother. She told him where I was, and
he came and got us at about 6:15 p.m. I refused to leave the
church until the last parent came. I just couldn't go until
I knew that all the children had gone home with their parents.”
The daycare centre was destroyed when the Towers fell. It never
re-opened. On September 11, 2002, a reunion was organised at
Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Gifts were exchanged. The children
played. It was a gesture of thanks and remembrance.
Do her children still remember September 11, 2001? “My
son can tell you in detail everything that happened as if it
happened yesterday. He remembers everything and everybody...
My daughter doesn't remember what happened, but if I try and
rush her to do something or go somewhere she gets very upset.”
And how has September 11 changed her life? “I won't work
on a high floor. I keep my children at a school near our home
in Queens. And when I leave the house, I carry with me everything
I need to be ready for whatever might happen...”
Hellen moved with Standard Chartered bank to its new headquarters
in New York at One Madison Avenue. Her office is on the third
floor. |
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