Huntley Librarian Pens Touching Narrative for 9/11 Memorial

It was the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

“Across the nation, the day dawned clear and cool. Many of us were waking up getting ready for work, getting ready for school, starting our days in the typical American way: coffee and the news,” begins Susan Riddle-Mojica’s 9/11 narrative. “Weather forecasts predicted sunshine and clear blue skies with forecast highs around 80 degrees. Hurricane Erin had blown out to sea.

It promised to be a beautiful day.”

The promise of that day gave way to terror when the first of two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers. Then word the Pentagon had been hit by another plane. Then another hijacked plane went down in Pennsylvania.

Riddle-Mojica’s narrative pieces together a timeline of that day and the aftermath of the attacks that propelled America in a new age. Orion Samuelson will read the piece at Sunday’s 9/11 American Flag Memorial at Sun City Huntley.

A typical morning

The Huntley librarian crafted the narrative after the organizers of the 9/11 memorial, known as the Memorial Six, took the library up on its offer to help. She was asked to write a timeline of the day.

What inspired Riddle-Mojica’s writing was how the day started for her own family. She was living in Chicago at the time, attending school and working part time. It was a busy morning as she got her then 11-year-old daughter ready for school and dropped her off.

She got back home and turned on the TV to catch up on the news since she was off school and work that morning.

“I had gotten back and the first plane had hit the building,” she said. “At that point, they weren’t sure what had happened. They didn’t know if it was an attack. I watched for a little while longer. Once the second plane hit, I decided I needed to pick up my daughter.”

Riddle-Mojica had a suspicion that it was a terrorist attack.

At the school, children were told there had been some type of accident in New York as parents began calling and picking up their children, Riddle-Monica said.

One of the effects of that day was a lost sense of security for parents and children, she said.

Riddle-Mojica researched the moments leading up to, during and after the terrorist attacks. There were particular themes that struck her and kept coming up again and again in the books, DVDs and Internet articles she read.

Flight 93. Todd Beamer. “Let’s roll.” Towers collapsing. People running. There were images of papers floating, planes crashing, people jumping.

Those are some of the things lots of people remember, she said.

She started with a basic timeline then added facts about the day itself, she said. It took some time to develop, but she had the basic idea of what she wanted to write.

Difficult, emotional research

Writing and researching the piece was difficult and brought back lots of memories, she said.

“One of the things that was very hard is there’s a memorial time line online that has audio recordings of people calling from the airplane to their families and leaving their last messages,” Riddle-Mojica said. “It’s very hard to listen to knowing this family would come home and there was this voice mail from a family member who they will never hear from again.”

While it was difficult for her at times, she wanted to do her best to honor the people who died. “What these ladies are doing are honoring all of these people. I couldn’t do any less than what was asked of me,” she said.

Peg Mulhall, one of the organizers, read the narrative and said it’s exceptional and touching. Samuelson will read it during Sunday’s program.

“This narrative is truly brilliant,” Mulhall said. “It’s a mix of facts and times and heartbreaking personal touches. I am blown away by how well she did this narrative.”

Riddle-Mojica is happy Mulhall and other organizers liked the piece.

"I really hoped it would be what they wanted and would be worthy of the occasion,” Riddle-Mojica said. “It will be interesting to hear the power his (Samuelson’s) voice gives to the narrative.”