We Haven't Forgotten - talk with 9/11 survivor Jim Hime

As we near the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, remembering and honoring the victims, and survivors, of that fateful day becomes paramount. On the morning of 9/11/01, Jim Hime was proceeding to an important meeting in the south tower of the WTC. Not a native to NYC, Jim was just there on what was supposed to be a relatively short business trip. What he experienced that day is something he, nor anyone else, will ever forget. Jim graciously shared his time with me to talk about his experience of that day.

Jim Hime is a published author, former tax attorney, and now currently works with USAA. Join us as Jim gives a harrowing recollection of his escape from the tower that day. He can recall that day with such vivid detail you’ll feel like you are right there with him. We also get into some discussion on the importance of remembering 9/11 and the effects the event had on him personally.


We will never forget.

Intro to Jim's book, "Three Thousand Bridges"

Introduction
James Hime
San Antonio, Texas
January, 2016

This book grew out of a visit to a counselor in the aftermath of a certain fateful and tragic morning in September, 2001, and a chance remark by my mother.

When I finally got home to Houston, on the 13th, after a two day long drive in a Mazda Millenia with a business partner, all the while still quite dazed from my experience in the South Tower, it was to an utterly tearful reunion with my wife of then twenty-seven years. Little did I know, she had already been thinking about what we both might be dealing with as a result of what I’d been through.

The appointment with the family counselor was already on the books.

We met in Cynthia’s office that next week and I told Cynthia everything about what I had seen and felt and heard. She asked the usual questions- about nightmares, about feelings, about my ability to, well, do things of a husbandly nature- and at the end, she had this advice for me.

“You’re a writer. You need to write about this.”

“Write about it?”

“Sure. Start a journal. Keep track of your feelings.”

Sounded simple enough, till I tried it, on my first airplane flight back to New York after That Morning, from LA. I remember how eerie it was, being on an American Airlines wide body jet with almost nobody else on board. People were still afraid to fly, even then, a month later.

I whipped out my trusty laptop and set about journaling. After I had written three or four paragraphs, I stopped to read it.

It was crap. It was drivel. It was a complete waste of time.

I deleted the file.

So much for journaling.

Still, I had this problem.

That Morning haunted me.

I obsessively followed the war in Afghanistan. I watched cable news, I read all the newspapers. I soaked up everything I could about the events of That Morning and the following days and weeks. I thought about it CONSTANTLY.

I had nightmares. Of being on airplanes that were falling, falling, falling from the skies toward the ground and I rode them all the way down each and every time.

I was in the grip of this thing and had no idea how to shake it.

Then, one morning, I went out for a run and while I was trudging along I thought about something my mother had mentioned in passing.

She said that whenever my dad brought up That Morning, he got very emotional.

This was unlike him. He has always, my entire life, been my idea of a Man’s Man. Him, getting emotional, even over something like that?

Hard to fathom.

But as I ran along in the pre-dawn gloom, I began to wonder what it would have been like to have a son who went missing in Lower Manhattan That Morning.

Unlike a journal of my own pitiful self, this premise struck me as a story that was maybe worth writing. It occurred to me that, perhaps by writing this as best I could, I might finally get the hang of it, this awful event I’d been through.

Before the run was over, I had this character in my head. He was grouchy and irascible. He was, actually, thoroughly unlikable.

He had to be. He was my ten-foot pole for touching all the things about That Morning that made me feel sad or angry or scared or guilty.

His name was Cole Simms.

This is his story.

https://www.jameshime.com/author.html

Link to Jim's book "Three Thousand Bridges" - Available for FREE via Kindle Unlimited
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Thousand...

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