Mother and daughter
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| n Erica Viola (right) and her daughter Ellie say that people have started reading the Bible again following the events of September 11 |
NEW YORK, USA — Erica Viola, and her daughter Ellie, 12, shared the shock and horror of all New Yorkers on September 11. Both were born in Brooklyn and had grown up with the World Trade Center towers as a backdrop to their lives. Suddenly they were gone. But one of their first reactions after the initial shock was to volunteer to ‘do something’ with one of the humanitarian agencies.
“The first day we took donations and gathered the names of people who wanted to volunteer,” Ellie recalls. “The second day, I actually started helping pack relief goods.
“Then we started to help the American Bible Society hand out Scriptures to fire and police stations in our neighbourhood and downtown Brooklyn. I felt better when I saw the expressions on people’s faces. I saw one man take the booklet out of the packet and put it in his back pocket and get in his truck. That inspired me.”
Heroes
It also inspired the firefighters and policemen to see a young girl helping out. Most important, she says, is the impact the Scriptures can have on the people many Americans see as their new heroes.
“I hope the Scripture booklets will give them inspiration to keep going and never quit and have hope in our time of need,” she declares. “Scriptures are important in difficult times because more people are going to God now. They’re realising that God can help them.”
Both mother and daughter turned to that help themselves as the horror of the attack touched their own lives. Ellie was in school and her mother was at home when the attacks came.
“We were in a Social Studies class and talking about how the Indians sold Manhattan for US$25, then we heard a ‘boom’,” she recalls. “We didn’t know what it was, we thought it was just a noise in the gym upstairs. So we didn’t think anything about it.
“Then we went to math class. My teacher said to sit down, take out notebooks and wait for announcements. I got worried because I knew he wasn’t going to tell us anything. Then all of a sudden he blurted it out. He kept getting beeps on his cell phone.
“Everyone in our class was scared. I was especially scared because I have family down there and I have friends whose mothers and fathers work down there. So I was really, really scared.
Towers
“When I got home, I watched it on the news. I started crying, because I was born here in Brooklyn, so I always used to see the Towers. And now I’m not going to, neither is my little sister.”
Ms Viola was at home that morning, watching the events both on television and outside her window.
“I was seeing it all unfold right on TV,” she says, “then I saw ashes and pieces of paper that had drifted over from Manhattan fall right in front of the building where we live. It got to the point where I got down on my knees and started praying. God heard my prayers, because everyone in our family was safe. But it took several hours to find that out, so during those hours we did a lot of praying.”
Horror
In addition to feeling shocked at the horror and worrying about friends and family, Ms Viola says she also felt personally hurt.
“I’ve grown up in Brooklyn all my life,” she explains, “and those buildings were started to be built just before I was born. I watched them being built, they’ve been a part my life. And just to see something like that happen hurt.”
She says it is a feeling many New Yorkers share.
“Anyone who’s been around New York City all their lives feels hurt,” she says. “Most of the people in that building and the firefighters have all grown up here. It’s a part of our lives.”
“Everyone is more emotional now,” she adds. “Every time I think of it, I start crying. But we’re more of a community now.
“I live in a very mixed neighbourhood. Everyone is now watching out for each other. It’s a very ethnically and religiously diverse neighbourhood. Everyone has a smile to give no matter what their faith or colour. No-one is looking at that anymore; we’re all Americans, all New Yorkers.”
Ms Viola and her daughter found the events of September 11 actually strengthened their faith, because their prayers for their family were answered.
Praising God
“When this happened, we all started reading our Bibles,” Ellie says. “When we found out that our family was safe, we started praising God for how he saved them.”
“The Bible is important to all of us,” her mother declares. “It gives us all inspiration and hope. We know that with the Bible there is a lot of love, and the love we get from the Bible we can pass on to others.” (WR 365/3 - 12.01) [PHOTOS]