Finding good in days of tragedy

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, November 10, 2001

For a lifetime, it was Lloyd Swanson’s day. When it rolled around again two months ago, it was no longer just his day.

The morning of his 87th birthday, the Everett man got a phone call.

"Somebody said, ‘Turn on the TV.’ And wow, I couldn’t believe it," Swanson said.

It was Sept. 11, a date that now looms large in history.

Your birthday matters. It’s special, and has been since before you can remember. Swanson shares Sept. 11 birthdays with singer Harry Connick Jr. and movie director Brian De Palma. But, like all of us, he feels his birthday is uniquely his. With no disrespect for the victims, he said, "It’s ruined my day."

He isn’t the first in his family to have a heinous act alter a red-letter day. Swanson’s 60-year-old daughter, Carol Gallagher, was in her 20s when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on her birthday, Nov. 22, 1963.

"She’s lived with that all these years," said Swanson, who on Sept. 11 called Gallagher at her home in San Diego, Calif., and told her, "Now I’ve got a date I won’t forget."

The 11th of September means death and destruction. The planes, the twin towers, the Pentagon, the 11th. It means something monstrous.

Yet, for some fortunate families, it means new life.

Julie and Erik Larsen of Edmonds welcomed their 8-pound 7-ounce son Kyle into the world that day.

"We had to be in the hospital at 7 that morning," said Julie Larsen, whose labor was scheduled to be induced at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland. "We turned on the news and watched it all day. Doctors would come in and stare at the screen."

One nurse commented that it was a day of bad luck, Larsen said. After that gloomy sentiment, she was cheered when a pediatrician said Sept. 11 babies "are really special."

"She was telling everyone, ‘These babies are going to make up for everything,’ " Larsen said.

Mary and Michael McBride of Everett also had a son on Sept. 11. Joseph McBride was born at Providence Everett Medical Center, weighing in at 8 pounds 9 ounces.

"It’s amazing to see people’s faces when they ask, ‘How old is he?’ They gasp and say, ‘Oh God, he was born Sept. 11,’ " Mary McBride said. Some have suggested she celebrate Joseph’s birthday another day.

A Snohomish man hopes that one day we won’t gasp.

In a letter to the editor printed in The Herald a week ago, Chad Donohue wrote:

"How do we keep from forgetting? Do we make Sept. 11 a national holiday? Why not call it One Nation Day or something similar? Imagine a holiday each year where everyone gets outside themselves and makes a point of reaching out and connecting, as a way of remembering our fallen friends and honoring our risen heroes."

An English teacher at Monroe Middle School, Donohue said he knows of no movement for an official holiday, "but I’m sure there have to be people out there thinking the same thing."

He envisions making a positive out of a negative, a way of renewing a commitment to America.

"The question would be, ‘What can I do today?’ A lot of people have problems with America, but at its best it accommodates everybody," said Donohue, who also teaches education at Seattle Pacific University.

Instead of terrorists reminding us that our lives will never be the same, he wants us to remind ourselves of who we are.

For Teresa and Jaime Griego, of Camano Island, Sept. 11 means joy. Their daughter, Elenor, was born at Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington.

"My life changed completely that day," Teresa Griego said. "For me it changed because I got a beautiful brand new baby.

Terrorists, she said, "did this to create fear in people, and I am not a person to go through my day-to-day life being afraid. My only priority is keeping her safe to the best of my ability. My priority is that she’s fed and happy and loved."

Griego has an uncle in Texas, Walt Kraatz, born the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

"That just shows that good things do happen on bad days," she said.

Teresa Griego’s mother, Kathy Ostlund of Everett, sent an e-mail about what Sept. 11 means to her.

"I do feel in the minority when people talk about Sept. 11," Ostlund wrote, "because for me that is a wonderful day, the day my granddaughter, Elenor, was born.

"That is the Sept. 11, 2001, that I will remember and hold in my heart."

Julie Larsen, the Edmonds mother, said that when her son was born, "we weren’t thinking about the magnitude of it."

Now that the magnitude is known, Larsen has her own idea for marking the day.

"Everybody in the country who had a baby that day should e-mail all these faces," Larsen said. "We couldn’t get them all together, but there could be a collage of their 1-year-old pictures.

"There must have been thousands of babies born that day. It would be nice to show new life."