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story by DOLORES FOX CIARDELLI
SEPT. 11
YEARS LATER
Pleasanton reflects on the day that changed America
“We’re still in shock but then we realize it’s national and international. It changed the world” THERESA AIMAR, PLEASANTON RESIDENT FROM NEW YORK
Page 12ÊUÊSeptember 9, 2011ÊUÊPleasanton Weekly
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he young dad at his parent-teacher conference in upstate New York six weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, suddenly looked at his watch and jumped to his feet, recounted Theresa Aimar, a Pleasanton resident from New York. “He said, ‘I’ve gotta go. My wife is taking a college class and I have to go take notes for her until they find her,’” Aimar said last week, fighting back tears. “He was in denial.” His wife had been working in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, and the first-grade teacher was Aimar’s sister, Joan, one of many family members who still live in Orange County, New York, which lost dozens of residents in the tragedy. Her brother Joe was part of a vigil for the return of his neighbor, the mother of a 3-weekold baby. Her brother Joe was a child counselor, who now had to attend parents’ funerals. “I grew up there — all the dads were firemen and policemen,” Aimar said. “For generations, those neighbors are missing dads. First responders kind of hang together — now they’re helping raise each other’s kids.” Pleasanton residents awoke Sept. 11, 2001, to the news that the United States was under attack by terrorists. Two hijacked planes had flown into the World Trade Center, and one had collided into the Pentagon. Another crashed in the fields of Shanksville, Pa., shortly after 7 a.m., PST. By 9:15 a.m., American airspace was cleared of all commercial and private flights. Americans had seen attacks in other countries, even against its embassies and ships, but now it was happening here. City staff lowered its flag to half-mast, and people erected impromptu monuments. Pleasanton held a community-wide ecumenical service at the Fairgrounds that Saturday night, a chance to join together at that time of national mourning. The Livermore-Pleasanton Firefighters held a pancake breakfast at the Veterans Hall to raise money for the emergency services personnel in New York City. Pleasanton was also impacted because one of the hijacked airplanes, Flight 93, was bound for San Francisco. Tom Burnett, 38, Thoratec Corp.’s senior vice president and chief operating officer, was on board; he and his fellow passengers were credited with diverting the hijackers from a more populated target. Burnett made four phone calls to his wife Deena in San Ramon during the hijacking, which helped form a coherent idea of what was happening on board. In March 2002, Thoratec renamed the street off Stoneridge Drive where it’s located in Pleasanton after Burnett. At the street dedication, Deena Burnett said that even six months later, parts of the phone calls were still coming back to her. “They are like little gifts,” she said. On that fateful Tuesday morning, Aimar was at her home on Second Street getting her three young sons ready for school. “My sister called and said, ‘Both boys are fine.’ She meant our two brothers were fine. They both work in Manhattan and one was on his way to the World Trade Center,” Aimar recalled. “I said, ‘What are you were talking about?’” When her sister responded, “Our tower’s down,” Aimar understood. “I was about 13 when my father finished building the World Trade Center,” she said, “putting in air conditioning and refrigeration. He’d come home every day talking about the World Trade Center. At about 13 I remember him saying they were the tallest buildings in the world, and his pride.” As events unfolded after Sept. 11, she became unsettled, and it struck a note with her when