I took this photo on a trip to New York City in 2010 inside St. Paul’s Chapel. It sits across the street from the World Trade Center site.
I learned that the chapel was used as a relief center for firefighters, medics, construction workers, police and so many more for months after 9/11. It didn’t take long for the chapel walls to become adorned with messages of love from around the world. It can be difficult to grasp, but 9/11 took place only six years after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. At the time, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in American history…until 9/11/01. I still feel overwhelmed reading “Keep your spirits up…Oklahoma loves you.”
In April 1995, members of the NYPD, FDNY and other emergency response agencies across New York and the country came to Oklahoma City to help our people with search, rescue and recovery. Oklahomans did not waste a single second returning that gesture after 9/11.
