United Aromatherapy Effort

Kim's Impressions

Sun, May 18, 2008
02:30pm

I've been wanting to write down my impressions ever since I was on the plane coming home.

This was our second trip to New York. I was nervous of returning as I knew it wouldn't be the same as January.

It wasn't, ...it was better.

Lynne and I were very lucky to have 2 very special people come with us from England. One was Ian Kelly, a BBC reporter, who had been very supportive of us before he had even travelled with us to New York!

He was made welcome by the team as soon as he met everyone, and I was so proud of you all for doing that. He had heard the stories from us in England, but it was nothing compared with actually seeing the things he saw us do; the work on the fire- fighters, the travelling with the chairs on our backs, the sharing of bedrooms... He was so impressed, and has done us proud with his TV recording. I think we have a stalwart ally in him now!

We were also very lucky to have Steve Paine with us. He had phoned me in February, wanting to come with us to NYC, as he had lost a colleague at the WTC,and used to be a firefighter himself before being invalided out of the service. I couldn't believe his story of firefighter turned aromatherapist. I knew instinctively that he had to come, and we're all so glad he did. Again, he was made welcome by all of you, and again you did me proud!

My most poignant memory of our week is of Engine 226. Lynne and I had set off to Brooklyn to work at Engine 204, who quickly made us feel welcome. But,as there were only 5 of them, we soon finished working on all of them, so I thought maybe we could go to another Fire Station that was on our list, but hadn't been visited by us yet. The guys kindly agreed to phone ahead for us, to see if E226 would like us to visit. They did,and we were offered a ride on 204's fire truck, travelling in style down to E226.

When we got there, the men were being interviewed by a journalist from the Discovery TV channel. Apparently, Discovery are planning to film them for a documentary timed to go out on the anniversary of Sept 11th. Lynne and I felt uncomfortable about this.

We were told that E226 had lost their entire watch on 9.11, apart from the driver. We saw how they were all so quiet and subdued. You could read the pain in their eyes. But they still wanted us to work on them.

One man told me how they have never had a day off since Sept 11th from ordinary people always wanting to visit them to see how they're coping. It was too much for them, he said, but he felt they had to do it, because people wanted to know how they felt and what it was like.

The filming was making him angry. The camera crew will be spending 3 months with them in their Station. They didn't want it. I told him he should try saying "no". He may not be able to get out of the filming, but he could say "no thankyou" to some of their "visitors". He looked at me as if he had never thought of a such a thing. There was almost some kind of relief in his eyes.

I hope they'll be able to do it.

Lynne and I were taken by them in their fire truck ( twice in one day!) to the subway, and we received warm hugs from all of them as we said goodbye.

We both felt that the tide was turning this time, and that all the firefighters needed to be left alone now. Ground Zero is coming to an end, and the chances of finding any more of their friends are getting smaller. The rescue workers are going to start grieving soon, and they're going to need some space.

I'd like to think that in some small way CERMT has helped them come to terms with the things they've seen, and had to deal with. We know how important our being there was for them. Many actually said so!

I feel so honoured to have been allowed to enter their brotherhood, if only for a moment. I also feel that we, as a team, have formed a brotherhood like the firefighters. No one on the outside can understand the emotions we have all been through, or the close bond we have for one another.

The friends that have been welcomed by our group, such as Ian Kelly, Vinnie Kupinski, and Jack, felt the same privilege that we do when we've been welcomed by the firefighters.

We've reached out to the rescue workers and have been accepted by them.

That is something I will treasure for ever.