The Red Bandanna

The Red Bandanna, A life.   A choice.  A legacy.   by Tom Rinaldi, Penguin Press, 2016

The excerpt for this new book, appearing in time for the fifteenth anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in New York City  - a photo of a young boy wearing a red bandana, and a young man lost in the towers - was so moving that I could not hold back on starting this book.  Despite its emotional and at times horrific images, I wanted to learn more about Welles Crowther, a former college athlete and equities trader who was working in the south tower when the planes hit.  

But as much as we love the heroic theme, this book is really a story of the gift Welles Crowther made to the survivors.  Crowther led a group of people down the stairs to safety, and then disappeared back up to help more.  Although we know that his work as a trader did not require him to do anything more than save himself, on that day, in those minutes, he took on the role of a firefighter, a man remembered for wearing a red bandanna as he made his way through the smoke and grit, carrying a woman over his shoulder some seventeen stories down to safety.  Welles had from an early age loved firefighters; he volunteered at an upstate firehouse, and he knew the drill.  

In the end, some six months later, Welles' body was found in the pit, the area under the ramp constructed to allow access to the fallen debris; he was found with other fireman. But beyond these few facts about his death, author Rinaldi searched and interviewed survivors as well as his family to answer the basic questions that remained - how could a young man step up to this terrible challenge and without hesitation take responsibility for saving lives amid the chaos and death and fear that rose in the buildings that morning,  did the survivors remember their savior, would they recognize his photo, what were his final words, and what happened with their own lives after this catastrophe?

Forever young.  The sadness seeps throughout this story -  sadness for the survivors who were so horrifically damaged by this attacks, and the deep sadness, for which I see no answer, of the loss of a good man who would never marry his life partner, never stare into his newborn's face, never outlive his parents.  It's just too unfair, too painful to dwell with.  And yet..... what he did in those few final minutes was stunning, more than most of us can ever contemplate.