Suria Rachel Emma Clarke was 30 years old and from Brooklyn, New York. (Born: Sheffield, England). Suria worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center.
At 8.30am on September 11, 2001, Suria emailed a friend to fix a lunch date. Sixteen minutes later, the first plane crashed into the North Tower 20 floors below her. There was no escape.
"I knew that somewhere in that was my daughter, but I was there six weeks later, staying in a hotel way up in New York, but you could see the steam and the smoke still rising from there, so the temperature levels down below would have been very, very high. Science just told you. Things went straight down the middle and would have been going down through a gigantic coffee grinder and then been being cooked, really, I suppose." (Suria's father, John).
September 11th will be upon us soon again, 12 years since the towers came down, 12 years since we entered our new age or fear and loathing, 12 years of speculation and of theories, 12 years of pain for those who lost loved ones. I don’t know if I will ever be able to explain to my son, who is three, exactly what that day did to us all, what it meant. I do not know if I want to. All I can tell him, truly, is that on that day someone I knew died. Her name was Suria. I did not know her very well but she was part of my circle of friends, we played softball in the park and we went to bars, brunches and parties together. We drank body shots of each other and laughed. She was pretty and funny and I remembered her very fondly even though we had both long since moved on by the time the towers fell. I recall so vividly reading the words “Suria’s gone” in reply to a question I had texted a mutual friend. It floored me. 12 years seems like a long time ago and it seems like yesterday. This September 11th I will cuddle my son and kiss my wife and I will raise a glass to Suria and to everyone else who died that day, and every day since then.
ReplyDeleteRoland Williams
I knew Suria when she lived in Brussels, not very good. but we hang out with the same people and went on a lot of trips. Sailing, canooing, picnics. She was funny and I thought she had style. She send me cards when my children where born. She was sweet, smart and had a great sence of humor. When I heard shortly after, it gave me nightmares and I had to do something with it. Since I am a painter. I made a painting not really looking like her but representing her. It's called Suria jumping and it's very big. The jump is symbolic, I made her jump in my painting in to a better world with a soft landing, just not this world anymore. I would like to give or show it to her relatives.
ReplyDeleteMarie Zquintle is my nam on FB