Remembering 911

September 11, 2001….The world changed that day for me as for many of you. I had never experienced the feeling of being threatened by terrorist activity on North American soil.  I still recall where we were and what we were doing the moment the world changed. For me, it was a regular work day. CBC was on the radio while I was getting dressed for work. I remember the newscaster with a news-breaking announcement. “The twin towers have been hit!”. I immediately shouted down to Nick and turned on the TV just in time to see a jet exploding into the second of the twin towers. We were in a state of shock. I can’t imagine the panic the people in New York must have felt. I was safe in my home with my children and trying to continue a sense of normalcy. My children had breakfast and got on the school bus and I left for work. The people in New York were fighting for their lives and the lives of others, living in a nightmare

The following weeks it all sank in. My children were fearful of the news of possible war. As a mom I needed to respond and offer reassurance in the future to my family. I remembered a time when I had felt that same fear and uncertainty.

Thanksgiving Day came. It was then I found it. An article I had written years ago. It was based on my great-grandmother’s memoirs.  It was ironic that my great-grandmother was speaking to me again as she had so many years before.

O Canada
GENERATIONS
A Great-Grandmothers’ gift inspires hope for the future

Sharon Smith-Woronuk

I never knew my great-grandmother… but she gave me a gift beyond compare. In  the early 1980’s,my husband and I were considering having a family. It was a frightening time. Daily news reports made us feel the impending threat of war as Iatola Khomeni’s regime terrorized the world. Was it unfair to bring a child into such an uncertain time?

Then I found it. While visiting at my mother’s home I noticed a type written manuscript laying on her desk, “The Hildebrand Storyas told by Aganetha Hilebrand Bueckert”, my great-grandmother. I delved into my ancestors’ memoirs. The story told, in early years, of a happy childhood in a farming community in Russia during the 1870’s. As she grew older, Aganetha experienced both joys and heartache. She married her true love, Franz Bueckert ,and mothered fifteen children during a time when the Revolution tore apart Russia and their prosperous lifestyle. Of those fifteen children, there were deaths following childbirth, due to communicable disease, and in an explosion.  My grandmother was a survivor.

In that era, freedom of religion became threatened. Men were conscripted and sent off to war leaving women to manage. “During the upheaval, rebels ransacked and plundered villages and their inhabitants, striking at night and terrorizing villages by burning, looting, and murdering. Old men and young boys were taken to provide teams to transport supplies to soldiers.”

Despite this, life went on. Children married. My grandmother, Helena Bueckert, married Abram Rempel.  My mother, Agnes, was their first born.

In 1926 the Board of Colonization in Canada was assisting destitute Mennonites to come to Canada. By selling farmland, machinery, and livestock, the Bueckert family was able to immigrate to Canada. On September 11, 1926, my great-grandmother and her family set foot on Canadian soil. She writes, “We were in Canada, penniless, but full of hope and anticipation in a land of freedom and opportunities.”. My eyes welled with tears. With faith in God, my great-grandmother looked to the unknown with expectation. The world no longer seemed so bleak. We don’t know what the future holds for us, but there is a future. Having children is an act of faith, which means life will go on. My mother was 2 years old

I never met my great-grandmother, but she gave me a wonderful gift… the gift of faith in a future for my husband, my children and myself. Thank-you great-grandma

How incredible! Our family arrived in Canada on September 11^th… the same

day of the New York tragedy. The world will always have areas of turmoil and there always be tragedy somewhere. We are only in control of how we respond to it. To me it was a sign we need to continue to live our life in faith hope and love just as my grandmother had. I was able to read this to my family on Thanksgiving Day the year of 911. It was comforting for me to know that we are survivors by choice. It is a time to wake up and live each moment, as we never know what tomorrow will bring.  Having a child is an act of faith that guides us into the future…And now the  great joy for us is to have our first grandchild! I never knew my great-grandmother… but she gave me a gift beyond compare.

 

 

My friend Carolyn had written a book titled Wake Up: Its Later Than You Think. It was during the days following September 11, 2001 that while on a morning walk that I wrote “The Wake Up Song”.

It remains a reminder for me to live each day to the fullest possible.