Andrea Doctor (AD)

AD: Johnnie had such a gorgeous smile and he had long eyelashes that any woman would die for. When I met him, my daughter was three and my son was six, and he raised them. So it was something out of a fairy tale. I remember, on 9/11, he called me at nine o’clock to wake me up cause I had to go to school. And then later I turned on the TV and I saw that, um, a plane had hit the World Trade Center. So I’m trying to call him–I kept calling, I kept calling, I kept calling. Nothing. And then about four o’clock in the morning they were at my door and they told me that he was missing–missing in action–that’s the exact words that they used. But, I knew when I hadn’t heard from him, I knew that he was gone. You know, I was upset with the military…I knew they was going through their formalities. You have to fill this paper out, I couldn’t even remember how to spell my kid’s name. And um, you know, I asked God, I said, ”God could you just bring him back to me?” And it’s just like God spoke to me. He said, ”He’s with me and I have other things for you to do.” And I looked out when I graduated from school, with my master’s degree, I looked up and said, ”This is for you. It’s you, you was my motivator.” And I feel his strength is with me to get me as far as I’ve gotten now.