What Life Is Like As A 9/11 Widow
- 7 years ago
The tragedy of 9/11 affected us all in some way. Share your personal story here: http://www.yourtango.com/20086907/a-911-widow-speaks-out
This is the story of Alissa Torres and her graphic novel, illustrated by Sungyoon Choi, which describes her personal experience as a 9/11 widow.
[TRANSCRIPT]
My name is Alissa Torres and my book is American Widow. I met my husband Eddie downtown and I was just ready to go out and have fun. And here was this lovely person. It was one of these sweet fall in love kinds of things. And then to realize that we met right under the shadows of those towers. And then boom and I’m pregnant and it was a lovely pregnancy. And then my husband lost his job in the summer of 2001. It’s the second day of work. The next thing I know my brother’s calling me up and saying “Turn on your TV. The World Trade Centers’ just been hit by a plane”.
I turn my TV on and it’s all this craziness. And I turn it off and I just knew my husband was dead. I felt very alone and isolated but meanwhile, there was all this unity around. I found it overwhelming to have all this energy around me all this good will and to find allot of it very unhelpful and very painful. There was one night where I just felt this amazing energy radiating from this mattress which was, you know, the bed that we shared. This was something that caught me unaware and it was really this beautiful, magical kind of thing. You know that problem with these things is that they are all very fleeting. There’s a lot of greed.
You know, You just want more cause you don’t have anything. There’s allot of pressure to move on and I find that whole concept of moving on completely offensive. “A year’s gone by you really need to be dating” or “You really need to be cleaning out your husband’s closet”. You go through what you need to go through and there is no timeline. I don’t really know if I’ll ever marry or not again. And I like to say no because it’s just this relief from a certain pressure really truly miss and love my husband but I love being a single mom. There are so many single moms and somehow its ok to be a single mom temporarily or to be kind of a single mom in transit but allot of women are single moms permanently. And you know, it’s a very rich and wonderful experience.
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This is the story of Alissa Torres and her graphic novel, illustrated by Sungyoon Choi, which describes her personal experience as a 9/11 widow.
[TRANSCRIPT]
My name is Alissa Torres and my book is American Widow. I met my husband Eddie downtown and I was just ready to go out and have fun. And here was this lovely person. It was one of these sweet fall in love kinds of things. And then to realize that we met right under the shadows of those towers. And then boom and I’m pregnant and it was a lovely pregnancy. And then my husband lost his job in the summer of 2001. It’s the second day of work. The next thing I know my brother’s calling me up and saying “Turn on your TV. The World Trade Centers’ just been hit by a plane”.
I turn my TV on and it’s all this craziness. And I turn it off and I just knew my husband was dead. I felt very alone and isolated but meanwhile, there was all this unity around. I found it overwhelming to have all this energy around me all this good will and to find allot of it very unhelpful and very painful. There was one night where I just felt this amazing energy radiating from this mattress which was, you know, the bed that we shared. This was something that caught me unaware and it was really this beautiful, magical kind of thing. You know that problem with these things is that they are all very fleeting. There’s a lot of greed.
You know, You just want more cause you don’t have anything. There’s allot of pressure to move on and I find that whole concept of moving on completely offensive. “A year’s gone by you really need to be dating” or “You really need to be cleaning out your husband’s closet”. You go through what you need to go through and there is no timeline. I don’t really know if I’ll ever marry or not again. And I like to say no because it’s just this relief from a certain pressure really truly miss and love my husband but I love being a single mom. There are so many single moms and somehow its ok to be a single mom temporarily or to be kind of a single mom in transit but allot of women are single moms permanently. And you know, it’s a very rich and wonderful experience.
Follow YourTango:
Web: http://www.yourtango.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/YourTango
Twitter: http://www.yourtango.com
Photo: http://weheartit.com/entry/167616694/