9/11 Anniversary Represents Close Call for Carmel Resident

Morning sickness on the morning of September 11, 2001 prevented Erin Beery from attending a 9:00 am breakfast meeting at the Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center, North Tower.

This September 11, while Americans pause to reflect on the terrorist attacks that shocked the nation nine years ago, Carmel resident Erin Beery will also be reflecting on what almost was, and how thankful she is to be alive today.

In 2001, Beery had a full week of activities planned around that fateful day. She was going to attend the Michael Jackson reunion concert in Madison Square Garden with two colleagues on the evening of Monday, Sept. 10, followed by a full agenda of business engagements the next day. A medical sales representative, Beery was scheduled to then fly back home to Indianapolis later that afternoon, attend additional business meetings on Sept. 12, and then fly into Washington D.C. on Sept. 13 to serve as a bridesmaid for her best friend’s wedding, to be held that following weekend.

Beery holds her Michael Jackson concert ticket stub from the night before at Madison Square Garden.

“I went to the concert and had an unbelievable time,” recalls Berry. “But I was fifteen weeks pregnant, and the next morning I woke up exhausted and suffering from morning sickness,” she says.

Beery was scheduled to meet a client, Dr. Richard Garnet of Richmond, Ind., on the morning of Sept. 11 for a 9 a.m. breakfast at the Windows on the World restaurant, located on the top floor of the World Trade Center, North Tower. She and a colleague were to then take the client, via limousine, into Stanford, Connecticut for a meeting later that day.

“Dr. Garnet had a ritual of going to eat at Windows on the World every time he visited New York City,” Beery says. “I knew how important it was for him to eat there, but I just couldn’t do it that morning. He was very disappointed, but I promised him that I would take him to the restaurant later that day,” she says.

Shortly after, Beery, her client and another colleague began their journey in the limo to Stanford, which was about 25 miles outside New York City. “We were enjoying the ride when the limo driver got a call from his brother, telling him that a commuter plane had hit the World Trade Center,” Beery says. “At that point, we just didn’t know what was going on. My immediate thought was that I’d better get a flight out of Connecticut, because I figured the air traffic out of New York might be messy,” she says.

Beery arranged to have her flight rescheduled, departing out of Hartford, Conn., that afternoon. Once at their meeting site in Stanford, Beery took a few minutes to call her father down in Florida, who was aware of her original morning breakfast plans. It was then that the enormity of the situation was made clear.

“The first thing my father said when he picked up the phone was, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so happy to hear from you! A second plane hit the World Trade Center, we’re watching it on TV, and it’s an act of terrorism.’ I’ll never forget how worried he was,” she says.

For Beery, it was the beginning of a week that she would later describe as surreal, as an out-of-body experience. With one change of clothes in her bag, Beery considered her options.

“The phones were then jammed for at least thirty minutes. Once I could finally make a call, I tried to rent a car, but of course that was impossible,” says Beery. So she found a hotel room and stayed glued to the television. She soon learned that her best friend’s fiancé, who worked at the Pentagon, was among the missing, and no one had heard from him or knew of his condition.

“It was really eerie … there wasn’t anyone on the roads … no one at the restaurants or lining up at the gas stations like they were back in Indiana. No one was even outside except for police officers, who were stationed at all the highway exits,” Beery recalls. “I basically laid low and waited to hear news about my friend’s fiancé,” she says.

Although she had a three-year-old son at home, and her husband, Jack, was urging her to get back to Carmel, she literally couldn’t leave Connecticut. “I was feeling panicky, but what could I do?” she says. “I just tried to figure out what was next,” Beery explains.

On that Wednesday night, 36 hours after the Pentagon had been hit by one of the hijacked planes, word finally came from the missing fiancé … he was okay and the wedding was on. So on Thursday, Sept. 13, Beery boarded a train bound for the capital city. What was usually a two-to three-hour ride took an incredible seven hours, due to rampant bomb threats and extended stopovers for security checks. In fact, when Beery finally arrived in D.C., authorities had just evacuated Grand Central Station in New York City, along with government buildings on Capitol Hill due to high-alert threat levels.

“I checked into the Reagan Hilton, and felt like I had entered a war zone,” says Beery. “Tanks were on most of the street corners, and members of the National Guard were out patrolling the city. Helicopters were flying all over the place, and because the Pentagon was still on fire, ambulances and fire trucks were racing everywhere. I just remember it being so very loud … there was just so much noise,” she says.

In the meantime, Beery had arranged for a friend from Carmel who was also attending the wedding to pick up her car and additional clothing (including her bridesmaid dress), and drive to meet her in D.C. On Sept. 14, as wedding preparations got underway, the bridal party met at the local CNN studios, where the bride worked and had arranged for hair and makeup to be done. As it turned out, that day was declared a National Day of Mourning.

“It was just crazy,” Beery says. “Here I was in the middle of this chaos, getting my makeup done, and meeting Larry King, Wolf Blitzer and other journalists,” she says. A particularly somber moment was when Inspector General Ted Olson entered the studio to be interviewed on Larry King Live. Olson had just lost his wife, television commentator Barbara Olson, who was a passenger on the plane that was flown into the Pentagon. For Beery, balancing the joy of the wedding with the unbelievable tragedies taking place around her proved difficult.

“Ultimately, the wedding went off as planned,” says Beery. “The week’s events definitely affected the mood of the wedding,” she says. “But it also made everyone so grateful to be together.”

The next day, Beery and her friend made the drive back to Carmel. Once home, the adrenaline she had been functioning on for the previous week gave way to other emotions. “After getting back, I took about three days and just cried and cried,” she says. “I actually ended up on bed rest shortly after that, probably due to the stress.”

Now, nine years later, Beery has two healthy boys, ages 8 and 12, and looks at her life in a different way. “The whole point of life, for me, is to appreciate my family,” says Beery, adding that prior to the tragedy she tended to be a workaholic. “My faith has certainly strengthened, and I thank God that I have my kids every day.”

As for her client who didn’t get to have breakfast at his favorite restaurant that morning? Dr. Garnet credits Beery for saving his life. “We remain good friends, and he is grateful that I had morning sickness that day,” says Beery. Grateful, indeed.