MSIA minister, Marc Alhonte, once again led a group of MSIA ministers down to “ground zero.” Jim and I were there. It was a rainy, cold, unpleasant day in weather respects. Marc allowed Jim and me to provide some direction to our walk as we had both worked in so many of the buildings in that area — part of the nature of the business that we are in is that we physically move around a lot. So, Marc’s willingness to let us plant a Light Column here where we worked 10 years ago or so really supported us personally — and I’m sure others.

So we wandered the Wall Street area. We went to a firehouse that had purple drapery in honor of lost colleagues. A fireman came out and asked if we were praying. We said we were. He thanked us and invited us in to his “home” — the firehouse. He showed us pictures of his “brothers” who were lost in the tragedy. He showed us pictures of those persons’ children. He was so grateful we were there. As were we. He gave us so much more than I can even imagine we gave him. He told us how important all of our support is to the firefighters. We hugged him and we moved on.

We walked many places under Marc’s guidance (with a few stops Marc encouraged Jim and me to make). It was so beautiful. The City was so sweet that day. We hugged a National Guardsman who told us “I really needed that.” Jim, Maxine Haft and I all had on jackets that said MSIA on the back — a young man asked us what that was. I directed him to the MSIA website and gave him my home phone number for more information.

And the rain kept tumbling down. So our little group split up. Everybody seemed to go their own way.

Jim and I went to a restaurant we frequent, which is known for allowing celebrities to have privacy, where we saw a famous musician and her son. While we don’t know them personally, I had a chat with the son about the “attack” we had all just been through — we were just two people chatting. He mentioned that he and his mom had left town because they were “scared.” He said they had had violence in their family. He said they were planning to go to “ground zero.” I said “God bless you”, and went to pee. At some point everything gets so basic.

Tonight Jim and I went to get our hair cut by our long time friend Steven Paoli whose apartment building downtown was actually struck by a piece of the engine of one of the planes. And he’s fine, although his business is operating at a 50% level.

Afterwards we went to a restaurant in a Tribeca neighborhood which would normally be “packed” but had very few people in it. A smell of smoke from the site was there also. We thanked the owner for being open. We were understanding of his own upset that he has had to lay off so many people because his business has collapsed to that degree. He expressed his gratitude that we were even there.

Please continue to send Light to the employees of Cantor Fitzgerald and Sandler O’Neill. I knew many people there — and did lose friends. I have the experience of there being a great commonality here. I’ve been hugging firemen and national guardsman, and I have had truly heartfelt sharing with restaurant owners, celebrities, my fellow ministers, my husband and myself. The city is coming together and everyone is on an equal playing field.