Lake Stevens nurse lends a hand

By Susanna Ray

Herald Writer

LAKE STEVENS — Disasters are nothing new to Mary Fox.

Since the Lake Stevens woman joined the Red Cross disaster nursing team in 1996, she has helped victims of massive floods and catastrophic tornadoes across the country, flying in each time for three-week stints as a volunteer.

But what Fox encountered in New York City over the past three weeks was different.

"In the other disasters, you were able to help the victims rebuild their lives," she said. "In this disaster, most of the victims are dead. So we were helping the families."

Fox is a registered nurse, but rather than dealing with medical situations, she found herself mostly providing support for the emotional and physical needs of those left behind in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Some needs were simple: A couple lost their glasses in the chaos of the towers’ collapse, and she helped them get new ones.

And some needs were heartbreakingly difficult. A young widow who lost the man she loved couldn’t keep from holding out hope that he was still alive, trapped somewhere in a pocket under the mounds of debris.

"A lot of people feel they’re abandoning their loved one if they file for a death certificate," Fox said.

There were other differences, too.

"What made this much different than a natural disaster like a tornado or a flood was that it was a crime scene, and that meant there were many more layers of government involved," she said.

Despite the incredible devastation, Fox said New Yorkers didn’t seem to be raising their fists at the heavens.

"People are not mad at God right now, they’re mad at (Osama) bin Laden," she said. "I think people get more mad at God when it’s a natural disaster."

Now that Fox is back home, she’s noticing a marked difference between the atmosphere in New York and elsewhere in the country.

New Yorkers are still "totally immersed" in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, she said. "I was walking through the Atlanta airport (on the way home) and I thought, ‘Something’s different here.’ And I noticed it in Seattle, too. It’s like everywhere else, life has gotten back to normal. But it hasn’t there."

Signs of normalcy were starting to return to the Big Apple when she left Wednesday, however.

"In our last few days, there were more people in Times Square," she said, "and taxi drivers started honking again."

Fox, who recently retired from nursing, didn’t immediately jump into action after the Sept. 11 attacks. She and her husband, Al, had just moved into a new home in north Lake Stevens and hadn’t yet unpacked, and her pregnant daughter was due to have a baby soon — reasons enough to stay put and work on the homefront.

But as she and her husband discussed the events, a sense of patriotic duty got to her.

"I said (to him), ‘You know how you felt when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and you wanted to do something, and so you joined the military? Well, I want to do something to serve my country,’" she said. "This was an affront on the American people. We were attacked. I couldn’t go fly a fighter plane, but this was how I could serve my country."

She has the full support of her husband.

"I believe my wife is a very compassionate, caring person, and that’s what makes her a good nurse," Al Fox said. "She does it from the heart."

That heart was emotionally drained during the three weeks of intense service in New York, but Fox said she has drawn strength from her Christian faith, which wasn’t shaken by what she saw there.

"God didn’t want this to happen, either," she said. "But man has free choice."

And getting up close and personal with the tragedy served to clarify her life philosophy, as well.

"It’s something that intensifies what I believe," she said, "that you really need to live life to the fullest now and not wait until tomorrow to do what you want to do."

You can call Herald Writer Susanna Ray at 425-339-3439

or send e-mail to

ray@heraldnet.com.

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