Survivor: Life goes on but not the same





	During one of many poignant moments at the East Northport Fire Department’s annual service Friday, Tom Linnane, 4, of East Northport, salutes the memory of those who perished on 9/11. Photo by Arlene Gross (click for larger version)

September 16, 2009 | 03:58 PM
Sept. 11, 2001 started as a spectacularly bright and beautiful autumn day in New York. Robert Schumacker, then of East Northport, was on the 58th floor of the World Trade Center's south tower, working at his desk when the airplane crashed into the building.

Schumacker, a financial software developer for Reuters International, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and depression; his relationship of 12 years ended and he didn't work again for three years. Though he has only recently begun to rebuild his social life, the 55-year-old Kings Park resident has much to look forward to.

'The terrorists tried to knock us down, but we're still standing strong.' — Northport Fire Chief Bob 'Beefy' Varese

"Somehow I still quite don't feel like the person I was on Sept. 10," he remarked, on the eighth anniversary of the attacks. "I've come a long way really and I'm very hopeful about the future actually." On Friday, Schumacker was among scores of Suffolk residents at the East Northport Fire Department's annual 9/11 service that commemorates the anniversary of the terrorist attacks and pays tribute to those who lost their lives. "We must not and cannot ever forget all the people we lost that tragic day," declared Second Assistant Chief Joe Irving. "As our lives go on, never forget that thousands of people's lives did not go on after that day and millions of people's lives were affected and changed forever."

As the names of the dead were read, the firehouse sounded the siren twice — marking the exact times the planes crashed into the two skyscrapers.

Firemen from many of the town's fire departments lined rain-soaked Larkfield Road, saluting during the national anthem, bowing their heads during the reading of the names of lives lost. A fire engine inched along, bearing a banner listing the nearly 3,000 people who were killed on that day. The mournful melody came from a bugler playing Taps, two bagpipers played a soulful duet of "Amazing Grace."

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Due to inclement weather, the 21 white doves, a symbol of hope and peace, were not released and airplanes did not fly over but otherwise the ceremony went on.

"It's been eight years since that fateful morning when tragedy struck from the air," Irving said. "As the entire world stood in stunned disbelief, calamitous horror played itself out in New York City, Washington D.C. and the fields of Shanksville, Penn. In a matter of moments, the world as we knew it came tumbling down and has forever changed. Yet from one of the deepest, darkest hours in America's history, arose some of America's finest moments. Working quickly and selflessly, police offices, firefighters and fellow citizens helped save thousands of people from death and destruction. … Working together, these valiant men and women risked their lives in order to save those of others."

Northport Fire Chief Bob "Beefy" Varese was working as a New York City fireman in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at the time of the attacks. One of the lieutenants from his firehouse, Ladder 106, perished that day. "It makes me proud to see everybody come out even in the rain, proud to be American," Varese said. "The terrorists tried to knock us down, but we're still standing strong."

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