Justice for John Ueltzhoeffer

Naturally the talk of the day is the death of Osama Bin Laden.  As I watched one news show this evening I realized I was getting very emotional - they were talking to the families of those who violently lost their lives that day.  I immediately thought of John.

I didn't know John in life, but I "met" him one year when a Blogger decided it would be a good idea to honor each and every victim on the ___ anniversary of 9/11 (can't remember what year, and the blog I wrote then is long gone).

The idea was to sign up to write about someone.  We were randomly assigned a name.  Then it was up to us to research the person and share about him/her on our blogs on 9/11 of that year.

I was given the name of John Ueltzhoeffer.  I was passionate about learning everything I could about John and by the time I was done, I felt like I had known him.  I found his sister, Helen, and she was willing to talk to me.  I emailed several of his co-workers, I got information off of memorial sites.  John was a good man whose life was stolen by him.

John worked on the 95th floor of Tower One.  Many of his co-workers survived, but he did not.  He was above all, a man who loved God and his family.  He had immigrated here from Poland with his wife Uschi and started a family.  They had three young children at the time of his death.

Here is a portion of what I orignially wrote about him that, to me, says the most about what kind of person her was.

Each day John would take an eight-minute train ride to his job at Marsh & McLennan. During this short ride he took the time to befriend fellow passengers on the commuter train each day. He was known for his warmth. Many of those who knew him from the train attended his memorial service in late October. Can you imagine? That’s the kind of impact he had on those around him. That really spoke to me.

Sadly the train is also a reminder to his children, Sarah, 7, Jacob, 4, and Becky, 3; would wait to hear the rumble of the train that was bringing their daddy home to them. They often drew pictures for him and would pile them on his desk for him to find when he got home. When he walked into the house they would run to greet him. Now the sound of the train passing by their home is a reminder that their daddy will never walk through the door again.

How does a family cope with such a loss? In the case of the Ueltzhoeffer family, their faith in God and their church community have made all the difference. The family attends Christ Fellowship Church in Elizabeth, where John taught classes in the men's ministry. "He was very devoted to God," Uschi, his wife said, my kids say, 'Daddy is in heaven and one day we'll be there.'"

 Peace, Hope and Love, Barbara