Former New Yorker shares her 9/11 experience

By Ilyssa DeCasperis
Special to The Friday Flyer

I lived in New York from birth until 3.5 years ago when I moved 3,000 miles away to Canyon Lake.

Ilyssa DeCasperis

I lived in Brooklyn for 30 years and then moved to Staten Island for 20 years. I worked in Lower Manhattan for most of my career. I was two blocks away in 1993 when the first underground bombing happened.

On September 10, 2001, I was in a car accident. It kept me home on 9/11.

On that beautiful Tuesday morning I was still asleep. My (now ex) husband called me from his shop in Brooklyn. He asked me where my friend Michelle worked. I responded, “the World Trade Center.” (He already knew that, so I didn’t understand why he was asking.)

He asked, “Where?”

I sarcastically answered, “Ummm…on the West Side Highway.”

He asked, “Which building?”

I said, “I don’t know. She gets off the bus one stop before me.”

He said, “Ilyssa, put on the TV.”

I turned on the television and saw a plane in the tower. I literally dropped to my knees. I was confused. I said, “Where is air traffic control?!” I saw it again and for a moment, thought it was a repeat. He said, “Ilyssa, we are being attacked. This is terrorism. That’s a second plane.”

I told him to come home. He said he had to wait to make sure it was safe to cross the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island. We expected more hits to New York City.

I rushed out to pick up my kids from school. One was in pre-school and the other was in elementary school. I went to the supermarket, feeling robotic, thinking if they hit our bridges there would be no deliveries to the Island. I walked through very methodically thinking about what to buy in case we didn’t have access to food in the coming days.

From the supermarket parking lot I saw the black smoke coming from the Towers.

Later in the day, I started making calls to find out where my friends were. Where my co-workers were. I made calls until midnight.

My (ex) husband was getting calls from friends who ran across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan asking if he would pick them up to bring them home. He did. Wherever they were.

In the end, I lost friends who didn’t make it out. I have friends who worked on rescue, recovery and the “bucket brigade” who removed remains from Ground Zero. They were told the air quality was safe. They worked tirelessly. Some are now sick with diseases that are directly related to the work they did.