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Jewish World Review
March 29, 2007
/ 10 Nissan 5767
From the ashes, a legacy: 9/11 family refuses to be bitter, turning a tragedy into an opportunity to do good for others
By
Michael Goodwin
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Among the many lessons of history is that joy and tragedy are two sides of life's coin. The lesson is true even for those who suffered loss on 9/11, a fact I witnessed recently as a New York family turned its tragedy into a helping hand for others.
Jack and Kathleen Lynch lost their firefighter son, Michael, in the collapse of the World Trade Center. When his remains were found, a photographer captured the heartbreaking scene of the parents and family members carrying the flag-draped stretcher out of Ground Zero. To this day, their grief has not stopped.
Yet neither has the grief stopped the Lynches from constructing a remarkably positive legacy for their son and his fallen brothers. Their generous spirit was overflowing Monday, as it has been every year since 2002, at a large dinner celebrating the Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation where 10 more students were awarded college scholarships in Michael's name. Their young lives are now linked to one who sacrificed himself to help others on the worst day in American history.
Altogether, 31 students, most of them the sons and daughters of firefighters, have gotten financial aid through the foundation. This year's crop is the largest yet, with the students headed to some of the nation's top schools, such as Georgetown, Columbia and Johns Hopkins, where they will study physics, music, education and engineering. About $600,000 has been committed by the foundation, which is run on a volunteer basis by Jack and Kathleen, their nine surviving children, other relatives and friends. The organization, whose Web site is www.mlynch.org, spends mere pennies of donations on overhead.
Mayor Bloomberg, no slouch at philanthropy himself, gave a touching speech to the crowd of about 300 in which he marveled at how the sprawling Lynch clan has found the courage not only to persevere, but to help others. Hizzoner spoke of looking at his own two daughters and thinking of how Jack and Kathleen have lost a son, yet managed to do enormous good in the face of such horror. Controller Bill Thompson struck a similar theme.
Witnessing those and other testimonials, which were punctuated by both laughter and tears, I found it hard to reconcile the evening with the horrors and fears of 9/11. To think back on those days is to remember the sense that the world we knew had been destroyed forever.
The city itself has bounced back, of course, and many 9/11 families have done remarkable things with their lives. Ordinary New Yorkers have done their part simply by living and working here. The Lynches have done that, and more. I am fortunate to have known them for years, yet I am still astonished by their amazing grace. Because of my family's long friendship with a niece (my wife, Jennifer Raab, also spoke at the dinner), I have seen how their suffering has spurred them to action.
Jack has been active in family groups, has written about the tangled issues surrounding Ground Zero and recently traveled to his native Ireland with Bloomberg to dedicate a memorial to the Fighting 69th, the Irish brigade whose exploits date to the Civil War. The memorial in Ireland contains a piece of steel from Ground Zero.
All those activities are aimed at keeping Michael Lynch's spirit alive and, as Jack noted Monday, reminding us that we cannot take our lives and liberties for granted. As the room hushed, he spoke plainly of the heavy burden of loss, the joy of helping others and of the historic meaning of 9/11. "We were free when they attacked us, we are free now, and we will be free when they are gone," he said.
Spoken from the heart by one who has paid the price of freedom.
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Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
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