(Also on the Daily Kos)
This post is a contribution to the 2,996 project, a collaborative effort of bloggers to pay tribute to the men, women and children who died on September 11th, 2001. For the past five years, much has been said about "the victims of 9/11", and yet for most of us that phrase refers to people who are almost entirely anonymous, summarized with numbers and statistics, names on a list and faces in a gallery of thousands. I wanted to join this project because I believe it is a way to honor each one of them as whole human beings, with all of the achievements, disappointments and everything in between that a lifetime has to offer. So I volunteered and was sent the name of Jeffrey Randall Smith, who died at the age of 36 in the south tower of the World Trade Center, survived by his wife Ellen S. Bakalian, and his daughters Margaret and Charlotte, who were 2 years and 10 months old at the time.
I did what any blogger would do -- I searched the Internet for bits and pieces of information that would help me form an understanding of Jeffrey R. Smith and his life. What I discovered is remarkable: a man who was an adventurer, athlete, world traveller and successful businessman, and above all a story of romance between Jeff and Ellen that is both inspiring and deeply tragic. I can hardly do him justice, but I owe it to him to try.
