Stacy Thedans (ST)

ST: It was after nine o’clock. She called me at work. She said, ”Stacy, are you watching TV? The Trade Center has been hit.” And we were commenting on that, oh my gosh, you know, What could we do? We were talking about, you know, We could go give blood, you know. Maybe we could drive up or something to help people. And she said, ”Stacy, I’ve gotta go!’” A really sharp tone to her voice, and she hung up the phone on me. I tried to call my mom’s office back, and nobody answered the phone. The hair stood up on the back of my neck. And my co-worker at the time said, “’The Pentagon’s been hit.” I ended up going to my parents’ house, and I kept trying to call her, and I couldn’t get ahold of her. So we spent the rest of the night, my sisters and I, calling the hospitals, trying to find her. And it was hard to get through to anybody because all the phone lines were blocked up. And finally my father pulled up, and she was not with him. He came in the house, and everybody else was upstairs, and it was just he and I, and I said, ”Dad, did you find her?” And he just looked at me, and he started to cry. And he put one hand on either side of the hallway and he’d sink into his knees and he said, ”Stacy, she’s not coming home. This is it.” I wanted to help him, but I was rooted in one spot, I just… I didn’t know what to say to make it better for him. And it took a month. It took a month before we had a body to bury. She was the finest person I’ve ever known, and everyone misses her so much.