STONEWALK 2004: BOSTON, MA to NEW YORK, NY.

August 13th
By Daniel Jones

August 13 – Friday the 13th. We woke up today and realized we had to leave the senior center. Vi and all the staff and members of the senior center have been so gracious and helpful. It felt like coming home yesterday after pulling to return to there. Now we were moving on. We had a good crew of people helping us again today. Yesterday, Maggie and her daughter, Nora, helped us push. They found in Portraits a relative of Nora’s teacher three years ago who had been killed at WTC. Nora told us about being in the classroom when her teacher was informed. It brought back the helpless, deep and sharp pain I remember feeling when Colleen told me about her brother. At another point, a woman, Robin, came running up to us. She had been a day delayed due to a traffic accident, so she was in Cobalt (or on the way to Portland) today rather than yesterday. She came to the stone with her friend, Catherine, in mind. Catherine had no family and was thought missing for several days after 9/11 before people realized she had gone to a meeting at WTC as a stenographer that morning. We looked through Portraits and Catherine was not there. Without family, she was unknown to many, but not now, thanks to Robin. Robin walked with us for ј mile and tearfully left us. She stated she would share our information with another family on her block that lost a firefighter son. As we get closer to New York, we will find more and more people personally affected.

We pulled into Portland to St. Mary’s Church after a difficult hill into town. Fr. John was waiting for us in the parking lot. He was so moved by the stone and the struggle to pull it. His tearful eyes and quiet voice showed a deep understanding of what we were doing. We had several hours before we would leave St. Mary’s for the procession into Middletown. Cat, Bob, Jim and I went to retrieve vehicles and the RV. Cat drove Nick’s car on the way back and followed me as we went looking all over Cobalt and East Hampton for a state park for which I had seen a sign so we could dump the waste from the RV. After much searching, we gave up because we still had to get to Portland to do laundry. Cat, Dot and Bob went to do laundry. I spoke with Time Out New York and then joined the others in the Laundromat. Even though we had what seemed loads of time, we were running late for our send off from St. Mary’s.

Father John blessed the stone and prayed for our safe journey. We left St. Mary’s and headed for the bridge into Middletown. There were about 75 people with us, some carrying larger paper doves on long poles. When we got to Middletown, we were joined by a police escort, fire escort, and the mayor. We pulled into the green and parked the caisson right as it was about to rain again. The deputy police chief seemed much taken with what we were doing. He had several of his officers pull the caisson from the Green into the Methodist church parking lot to plug in for the night. I found out the next day that his boss, the chief, lost a cousin, a fire fighter, at WTC.

We spoke in the evening at the South Congregational Church. It was an honor to share the program with Chris Doucot of the Hartford Catholic worker. He has been to Iraq several times. He shared photos and compelling stories of the struggles and horrors that so many face there. I wish Chris could join us the whole way to help us know some of the people buried under the stone we carry. We were also reunited with Loretta and Andrea who came bounding up to the caisson earlier on the streets of Middletown. Loretta, Andrea, Cat and Bob all spoke very beautifully about the pain of losing family and the compassion, based on that pain, for others’ suffering. If we can stay strong enough to be vulnerable, that pain connects us with people who desperately need us. People often ask if this will work, both stonewalk and the mission of Peaceful Tomorrows in general. For me, it is working so powerfully already.

After the event, Dot, Cat and I went to the Holiday Inn where Loretta and Andrea were staying. Colleen and the kids came to pick me up to go to her sister’s house in Windsor. The kids slept in the car as the rest of us talked in the paring lot. I was so happy to see Colleen. I have missed my family while out on this walk. I can’t wait to push together tomorrow.