‘Phone call kept me out of harm’s way on 9/11'

Have you ever seen the 1998 movie, Sliding doors, starring Gwyneth Paltrow?

It’s a rom-com/drama about how a woman’s parallel lives pan out depending on whether she catches a particular train one afternoon.

New York City on September 11, 2001, was a veritable treasure trove of unwritten scripts for such movies. People bound for the top floors of the World Trade Centre called in sick that day or slept in. Tragically, some took a late flight due to delays, and ended up on an ill-fated journey.

One person on whom chance smiled that day was local woman Gemma Rowan who, without checking her voicemail, would have had an unpleasant front row seat for the 9/11 disaster. Gemma, a former employee of the Westmeath Examiner, lived and worked in New York for 18 years.

She remembers exactly where she was on September 10, 2001 – just short of a day before passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers, kicking off a chain of destruction which claimed the lives of thousands.

“On September 10, I had a meeting downtown at 9am, right next door to the World Trade Centre,” recalled Gemma, who worked for Hewlett Packard in Manhattan.

“My regular office was at 2 Penn Plaza, right above Penn Station. My normal commute would be the Long Island railroad into Penn Station, arriving at 8.39am, and then I would go upstairs to my office on the eighth floor.

“On September 10 I took my usual train and a quick subway ride downtown, arriving at the World Trade Centre at about 8.50am. a team of us were working on an account plan, and as we didn’t have it finished, we arranged to meet the next day: same place, same time.”

If the meeting had taken place at that time, Gemma would have arrived by subway just as the first plane hit the World Trade Centre’s north tower.

“But later on that day I got a voicemail from Rich Pinto, the account manager, who was leading the meeting,” Gemma continued. “He said that he had an early meeting on September 11, and asked if I could meet him at 11am instead of 9am.

“That day, I took my usual train, and instead of going to the World Trade Centre, I headed to my own office at Penn Plaza to catch up on some work before going downtown.”

As Gemma passed time for the hour, to the south, an apocalypse ensued.

“I was just logging in and getting settled when one of my co-workers came by and said, ‘Isn’t it awful what happened at the World Trade Centre?’, but we had no idea how awful it actually was,” she said.

“I ran to the window but didn’t realise the extent of what happened until we were evacuated, and the streets were full of people running and crying. There was smoke, fire and ash behind us.

“In fact, none of it really sank in until later that night and the next day.”

Aside from the panic and uncertainty that followed, the 9/11 attacks had a real impact on Gemma’s working life.

“A few days later we went back to our offices. It was tough to do, as we lost friends and co-workers that day. “Some of them were on the top floor of the World Trade Centre, in the Windows on the World restaurant at a customer event. another man we knew was on one of the crashed planes, going to another meeting.

“We all gathered for prayers, and as I was sitting there, Rich walked across the room and hugged me, saying: ‘I’m so glad to see you, you got my voicemail then?’

“I thanked him so much for making that call, as it probably saved me from injury or loss of life.

“During my 18 years in New York I worked with so many people that I will never remember all of them, but I will never forget Rich Pinto, or that September 11.”

First published in our September 10 2011 edition.