On September 11, 2001, Michael Lomonaco was working as the Executive Chef at “Windows on the World” – the famed restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Arriving at the building that morning, Michael decided to stop and get his reading glasses adjusted at the optometrist in the lower concourse of the complex.

That one decision saved his life.

“I was seated in an examining room,” he recalled. “I put my glasses on the table. I was there for a little while, and the doctor was almost finished with me when I felt something rumble. Now behind me where I was seated, I knew there were subway trains. But I thought, that can't be the subway.

“And in fact, it was the impact of the first plane that I felt. It shook the whole building. And it was moments later, the lights went out, and within a minute or two they were evacuating the Concourse level.”

Obviously, Michael was forced to navigate unfathomable grief and loss in the ensuing years.

How did he do it?

“We have to believe that the future is ours because otherwise it paralyzes us in the here and now,” he reflected.

There have been poignant ceremonies this week in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to remember the 2,977 people killed by radical Islamic terrorists.

Names were read, bells rung and tears shed.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal last week, columnist Peggy Noonan summed up the sentiment of many of us when she reflected:

“Never lie about the things that break your heart. I’ll never get over it, none of us will.”

Those who weren’t alive need to be reminded about what happened and why.

They need to know that evil men waged an ideological and religious war on America – a campaign that has never ended.

They also need to know that America fought back courageously, heroically and sacrificially.
Personally I @nettermike do know some people who made it though due to a simple twist of fate.
If you have stories like that please share That is really what X is for so we can all share freely
@elonmusk

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