September 11, 2006
I Remember Lance Richard Tumulty
Actually, I never met Lance. That will not stop me, however, from remembering him. Today marks the day when Lance, along with 2995 others perished at the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Lance (pictured above) sounds like the kind of guy I would like to get to know. The following comes from a profile page set up by his employer--which by the way lost several other employees when the World Trade Center collapsed:
Lance Tumulty had a great sense of fun and adventure. He loved to motorcycle and hunt, but he was equally happy doing household projects with his brothers, challenging them to see who could paint a wall fastest or chop more wood in 15 minutes.
Lance was not merely a number, he was a person, who left behind a wife, Cynthia, and two daughters. My son was eight days old when Lance's daughters became fatherless.
Today we all should pause and remember what happened on that day five years ago. It seems like we have forgotten all too quickly. I'm sure Cynthia has not forgotten.
Should Cynthia or any of her family read this, they should know that they were prayed for today in this household in northeastern Brazil. May God bless them, and may they know the peace, comfort, and joy that comes through knowing Christ.
This entry was written in participation with the 2996 project. You can see other tributes by going to their site.
Posted by Andrew at September 11, 2006 9:04 AM
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Comments
Posted by: scott at September 13, 2006 2:39 PM
Scott, thank you for the beautiful comment, and for filling in another piece of the story.
May God be with that whole family as the continue to rebuild their lives.
Posted by: Andrew at September 13, 2006 2:45 PM
Beautiful tribute. It was a horrible day with so much sadness and loss. You did a wonderful job of honoring Lance's memory.
Posted by: Ananke at September 15, 2006 8:26 AM
Thanks Ananke! As I commented on your site, your tribute to a Brazilian killed in the attacks was touching as well.
Posted by: Andrew at September 15, 2006 8:52 AM
I never met Lance either, but I was working at St. Vincent's Hospital in NYC on 9/11/01 and his name crossed my path during the chaos and I have never forgotten him.
St. Vincent's was the closest level 1 trauma center to the WTC site. Pretty much everyone injured came to our facility first to be triaged and then treated or transferred. Because of this, CNN was scrolling our phone number on the bottom of their screen all day long. We soon set up a phone bank to help people from around the world try to find their loved ones. For 3 hours in the early morning of 9/12 I took calls and tried to match people's requests with the list of names of injured that had passed through our ER.
Lance's brother Sean called. I will never forget his plaintive pleas that I do everything I could to help him find his brother. I did, but I was not able to give him the answer he so desperately wanted. Lance was gone. I don't know how or where, he just was. And in the early morning hours, less than 24 hours after the event, I was crying over someone I had never met, wondering, hoping, that if anything ever happened to me someone would trying everything in their power to find me, save me. What changed in me on 9/11 was the desire to reach out to my own brother, reconnect and rebuild our bond that had grown weak over the years. To try and recreate that pure love that Sean clearly had for Lance.
I will never meet Sean Tumulty, but he, and Lance, changed my life that day. Amidst all of the horrible awful things, there was some good.