A New Hero - Lisa Beamer
| Widow of Flight 93 hero
makes trip to California her own act of courage From the Plain Dealer, October 20, 2001 |
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| San Francisco - The widow of an airline
passenger who tried to thwart one of the Sept. 11 hijackings took the same Newark-to-San
Francisco flight yesterday to make a statement against fear. A pregnant Lisa Beamer flew on United Flight 81, renamed from Flight 93, to meet some of the business associates her husband was on his way to see. |
  Mike Derer | Associated Press Posted in the Plain Dealer, October 20, 2001 |
| About 15 clapping United
employees greeted her when she arrived in San Francisco. She said she retraced her
husband's planned journey as a way to show it is safe to travel again. "I'm definitely dealing with grief and loss, and I'm really looking ahead," she said. "And I think the flight today was more looking ahead." Her husband, Todd, 32, was one of several passengers aboard United Flight 93 who made phone calls to relatives and authorities, alerting them that a hijacking was taking place and informing them of plans to fight back. He ended his conversation with an operator by dropping his phone and saying, "Let's roll." Shortly afterward, the plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing all 44 people on board. Authorities suspect the hijackers had planned to crash it in Washington but were stopped by the passengers. |
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Before leaving Newark, N.J., yesterday,
Beamer's widow said she expected the flight to summon painful memories. The phones on the backs of the seats were covered before Beamer's flight, said Carolyn Gilmore, a family friend who helped arrange the free trip. "That's the one thing she didn't want to see," Gilmore said. |
| Beamer, whose husband was an
account manager for Oracle Corp., said she would meet with some of his associates to raise
money for the Todd M. Beamer Foundation. The organization (www.beamerfoundation.org) will
help the 22 children who lost parents aboard Flight 93 and encourage young people to
"grow up into the kind of person Todd was, who can make courageous and moral
decisions," she said. Todd Beamer left behind two sons, ages 1 and 3. A third child is due in January. |
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