MCKINNEY, Texas — The notion that time heals depends entirely on the person and the event. If not in person, through images we were all witnesses to the deadliest attack American soil on Sept. 11, 2001.
For many, it is hard to imagine it has been two decades.
Joseph Chandy, of McKinney, struggled at first with talking about it. Over time, he has grown comfortable talking about it in spurts, but only if it comes up naturally.
“Some days I’m OK talking about it, and some days I’m not,” said Chandy.
He was raised in New York, and at the time, worked across from the World Trade Center towers. He still keeps a photo of the towers at the desk of his home office.
“I could see [the towers] out of my window from 33 Maiden Lane from the Federal Reserve building,” he said.
Chandy described the towers as a vibrant place with the constant ebb and flow of business professionals. He described the food trucks and food kiosks in the area that many people frequented; the place was teeming with life.
Every morning, Chandy took the E-train in to Manhattan, but on Sept. 11, 2001, he was running late and had to take the bus. The weight of that decision may live with him for the rest of his life.
“There’s cars in the tunnel, there are cars outside the tunnel and everything is stopped. I said, ‘What’s going on?’” recalled Chandy.
An uneventful morning turned into an unbelievable one. Chandy never made it downtown. The bus he was on was stopped for a long while and had turned back.
Two decades later, and Chandy still wonders if this was fate, luck or something else.
In that moment, on the bus, Chandy describes the chaos and the questions and conversations with passengers inside the bus. The initial reaction was that a private plane had accidentally crashed into one of the towers. It wasn’t until Chandy reached home hours later and watched the news he found out it was a terror attack.
“For some reason I was spared and I wasn’t there. I think about it from what could have been,” he said.
Chandy said it took some time to process everything that happened. He recalled seeing military vehicles “everywhere” after the event. He recalled the pain and sorrow his fellow New Yorkers felt in the days and weeks that followed.
“It was the first time I really experienced loss,” he said, likening it to the loss of his own father.
Chandy did lose a friend and colleague in the attack. Manika Narula, 22, worked in the World Trade Center. In total, more than 2,600 people lost their lives at the twin towers site, including the countless brave first responders who ran toward the chaos.
“She didn’t make it; one of the sweetest people anyone you can talk to about her only had great things to say about her,” said Chandy.
Chandy is married, has two small children and lives in McKinney. His son Jaxon was born on Sept. 11, which makes that day bittersweet.
“I’m proud of New York City, proud to be a New Yorker, and proud to be from New York,” he said.
Chandy said he was moved by the resilience of his home state during that time. It will be a moment he’ll never forget and also a moment he won’t ever volunteer to talk about. But, over time, he’s become more comfortable talking about what happened and what could have happened.