PARMA, Ohio — No matter where you were on Sept. 11, 2001, you remember the moment. For some, their ties to the tragedy remain strong, whether that’s because they were there that day, knew people who were, or helped in the aftermath.
At Padua Franciscan High School in Parma, three people have powerful stories to tell and a unifying message they hope to pass on to the kids who walk their halls.
Mariana Cohagen is the administrative assistant to the athletic directors. She was moving to the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The newlywed left her home in Denmark. Her husband was waiting in New York City, where he worked next door to the World Trade Center.
“Was on an airplane and got diverted to Gander, Newfoundland,” she said.
Friar Johnpaul Cafiero, the school’s chaplain, had a rich history in the city. He served there in the 1970s. His father still worked there, in the World Trade Center, at the time of the attacks. He’d just been in the city a week earlier, having lunch with his dad. Back at home, he saw the attacks unfold on television.
“My dad’s office was on the 86th floor,” he said. He watched the first plane hit the North Tower, finding some comfort that his dad worked in the South.
“And all of a sudden we’re watching as the second plane comes right into that building, almost exactly on the floors where my dad’s office was,” he shared with News 5.
He soon learned his dad was OK. He’d taken some time off work for a trip to Atlantic City. But the man who worked for him was killed.
“I remember dealing with my dad,” Cafiero said. “He had, like, survivor’s guilt.”
Padua Franciscan’s VP of mission and ministry, Father William McIntyre, was assigned to a parish on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at the time. Father Bill, as he prefers to be called, heard about the first plane. He figured it was a small aircraft and went about his morning. Then he made it to the parish office and saw the television.
“We saw a second plane hit the other tower, and then we knew it was different.”
In Gander, Cohagen saw kindness rise to the surface of the tension and fear bubbling in the hearts of some 7,000 passengers diverted to a small town of 10,000 people.
“People waiting for us with towels and blankets and water and food and whatever you could need,” she said. The locals opened their homes, pantries and hearts.
The stranded passengers lined up to use some phones at a community center and check on their loved ones. Cohagen learned her husband was OK. She got back in line to call her parents in Denmark and saw the TV room across the hall.
"You couldn't see the TVs from where you were waiting in line, but you could see the people's faces that was coming out of the TV room, and from looking at that you knew this was not good,” she said.
Back in Manhattan, McIntyre opened the parish to those in need. The next day they hosted an interfaith prayer vigil.
“The church was dark, and you saw the faces of people with these lights, little lights, vigil candles,” he said.
As for Cafiero, he jumped in to help. He was a part of the National Organization of Victims’ Assistance (NOVA) and was dispatched to New York City to take care of first responders.
“They would get a break every two hours, and they would come up, and we’d give them coffee or something to drink,” he said.
In Newfoundland, Cohagen saw firsthand how far the kindness of strangers could go.
"They showed up every day with food, if we needed anything, do we need to be taken anywhere, do you need to go to Walmart, whatever you need,” she said.
She passed one local during a walk, and after confirming she was one of the stranded passengers, the woman told her she lived two houses down and to help herself to a shower.
"What we saw in Gander, Newfoundland, was humanity," Cohagen said.
With the next generation in their care, these three educators are hoping some of the lessons from that day live on.
"They were born into a world that's so polarized, that's so divided,” said Cafiero. “There was a time when, as a country, we all came together. We came together as one."
It was a moment of unity that kids today have never known, one that these educators still try to instill in the hearts of their students.
"After everything was done,” Cohagen said, “we saw a humanity in people that we should try and do every day."
