My name is Jack Grandcolas, a 46 year old man, but I’m not normal. When I was 28 years old I married the woman of my dreams. We wanted a child and she got pregnant many times but none worked out. In the late summer of 2001 the news came! She was pregnant. In September if she still had the baby we would officially announce it. September 11, 2001 was the day my wife was to come home from a funeral. I was excited as I got up that morning but something in my head told me something was wrong. I turned on the news as I ate breakfast and nearly choked on my food; two commercial airplanes had crashed into the twin towers. Naturally, I panicked knowing my wife was on a plane. She would be fine, I told myself. She wasn’t on those planes, but… no, I wouldn’t think about that.
I went on with my day but Lauren never went out of my head as I heard that a third plane had crashed. I hoped she would be careful, but careful of what? To that I had no answer. When I got home, I reached for the phone and had one new message. The message read: “Hi Sweetie. There’s a little problem on the plane. I’m totally fine, just a little problem and I want you to know how much I love you, know that. I am fine and comfortable… for now. I love you more than anything, just know that. It’s just a little problem. Tell my family I love them as well. I love you.” Beee-
I hung up the phone, shaking uncontrollably. I tried to sit down but I couldn’t move. In that moment my dreams were crushed. I would never see my newborn baby, never have a fiftieth anniversary, I would never give my daughter away at her wedding, my wife would never come home. That’s when it got hard to breathe. I’d never realized that a house built for a family could be so lonely without one. For the weeks afterward the basics were hard to remember. I couldn’t eat, sleep. I would wake up crying. I had forgotten how to breathe naturally. After that I began to realize I was depressed. There was no other word for it. I knew that, so I began to heal.
After the depression came the longing. The longing to be with Lauren. By October, I’d lost 30 pounds. The sympathy notes kept piling in, so I answered as many as I could. I started working part time in November and full time in January. I organized some organizations and went to media interviews. It got easier to think of her. But the best years of my life were the fifteen I spent with Lauren Grandcolas.
Gender:
Points: 1040
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