Tragedy illuminates precious gift of life
By David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, September 16, 2001
My car radio said something about smoke coming from the World Trade Center in New York. The announcer apologized for not having more information. It was 9:30 a.m. on a sunny day in High Point last week.
In the agonizing minutes that followed, our world changed forever.
Like many of you, I experienced that awful day through the lens of premarket. We all began that Tuesday talking about products and promotions and prices — the things that loom large in our everyday business lives. But as the day unraveled in horrible TV images and sickening reports, we forgot about what we do for a living and we focused on something more precious: life itself.
And as night finally fell on Terrible Tuesday, with our industry fanning out across the country from High Point in rental cars, we all knew things would never be quite the same again. But we knew, too, that some madman half a world away can never destroy the spirit of our great country.
I saw the bonds that link us all grow tighter by the hour as we gathered around TV sets in showrooms and talked quietly together, sharing our reactions and our worries and helping each other put things in perspective.
Gerald Birnbach, chairman of The Rowe Companies, was his usual candid self.
"The world will never be the same," he said. "This changes everything. We knew something could be coming, but who knew it would be this horrific? Life will take on a whole new attitude. It's like Pearl Harbor. Look at New York City with all that smoke coming out of it. That could be Pearl Harbor."
The tragedy touched Birnbach in an odd, happy way. His daughter, Nina, gave birth that morning in George Washington University Hospital in Washington, which was put on alert to deal with casualties from the shattered Pentagon nearby. "Dad, what's happening?" Nina asked Jerry when they talked on the phone that morning.
A new life was starting. Nick, Jerry's new grandson, was born at 9:30 a.m. He can serve as a reminder to all of us that our children are the most precious gifts of all.
Over at La-Z-Boy, Chairman Pat Norton reflected on a world that sometimes defies understanding.
Norton talked about what it was like in World War II, when the guy right next to you died in battle, but you were untouched. Why did that guy have to die? Why were you spared?
"These are mysteries we can't understand," Norton said. "Maybe someday we will."
Right now, we can't understand why so many innocent people had to die. But our faith tells us we must go on. We all have a miraculous blessing — life itself — that calls us to press onward and to do our part to enrich the lives of our loved ones.
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