Posted on Sep 10, 2015
What does this brother mean? I learned to understand shame after losing my brother on 9/11.
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This is a very inspirational article. This is about 911, which is tomorrow, and a brothers grief.
Army vet Joe Quinn reflects on losing his brother on Sept. 11 and overcoming the shame he carried afterward. On September 12th, I found myself on the wrong side of carrying my parents’ refrigerator down the stoop of their Brooklyn home. As several of us moved it down the stone stairs, the weight of the refrigerator fell on my shoulders and it eventually went crashing forward onto the sidewalk by the fire hydrant, where we kept things that needed to be taken away.
The refrigerator broke because there was too much food in it. When there’s tragedy in South Brooklyn, neighbors bring food. Tons of it. The old, yellow Frigidaire couldn’t handle all that pasta, so it broke down and needed to be taken out.
http://taskandpurpose.com/i-learned-to-understand-shame-after-losing-my-brother-on-911/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tp-today
Army vet Joe Quinn reflects on losing his brother on Sept. 11 and overcoming the shame he carried afterward. On September 12th, I found myself on the wrong side of carrying my parents’ refrigerator down the stoop of their Brooklyn home. As several of us moved it down the stone stairs, the weight of the refrigerator fell on my shoulders and it eventually went crashing forward onto the sidewalk by the fire hydrant, where we kept things that needed to be taken away.
The refrigerator broke because there was too much food in it. When there’s tragedy in South Brooklyn, neighbors bring food. Tons of it. The old, yellow Frigidaire couldn’t handle all that pasta, so it broke down and needed to be taken out.
http://taskandpurpose.com/i-learned-to-understand-shame-after-losing-my-brother-on-911/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tp-today
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 3
SGT (Join to see)
MAJ Ken Landgren, I really do know how he feels. My son and I had cut up a tree we had felled. It took most of the day. He had to get ready to go to baseball practice in a small town about 30 miles from us. He had a baseball scholarship. He was worn out from working all day with me. After practice, on the way home, he went to sleep and hit another car head on. He died and two women in the other car died. When the DPS pulled in our driveway late the next day, my wife and I knew what had happened when we saw them. I don't really blame myself for his accident but I feel responsible for him going to sleep. It was a week before Thanksgiving, so two families were in mourning on Thanksgiving.
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MAJ Ken Landgren
I am sorry for your loss and hope you find peace. I won't pretend to know the pain, but I guess I would think what could have been. You can message me anytime.
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The warriors' ethos is to stand the line between good and evil. And when that line is broken, we hold ourselves accountable: We review this as a failure. Because we cannot trade places with the fallen, we are left to ponder our own grief. Like that damned refrigerator, it becomes our burden: too heavy and too uncontrollable. The most feared moments are not contact with the enemy --rather, when we find ourselves in quiet reflection --for it is in that time, we are most vulnerable.
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