Nine-One-One

Nine-eleven, numbers forever engraved on the hearts of every person in the USA. I recall that last year, maybe in previous years too, some writers suggested that it's time to stop marking the anniversaries as they pass. That's something for each of us to choose to do, or not. It's certainly not for anyone to dictate. I wasn't in the US at that time, I didn't have a computer either, so relied on the TV and newspapers for information, but still recall vividly the breaking news that day, and how I first heard it, and how I felt.

I'd decided that this year I would simply put something in the sidebar today to mark the anniversary of 9/11/2001, but on Saturday night, as we continued to plough through our DVD set of the 5-season long Ally McBeal series from the 1990s and early 2000s, the tragedy was brought to mind. An episode we watched, which I later discovered had been aired in December of 2001, was a subtle tribute to those lost on that terrible day, and to the many people grieving in various ways.

The usually zany, irreverent writers and cast were in a more sombre mood for most of the episode, set around Christmas-time, dealing with a couple of court cases. One case was about a former church minister who had lost his belief in God after his wife had been shot dead. This led to him being removed from his ministry. His son, a leading choir member, had lost his will to sing. A second case was one brought against the mayor of a town where a big factory had burned down, killing several employees and 6 firemen, leaving the town bereft, and with many unemployed citizens. The mayor ruled that their annual Christmas parade would be cancelled. A concerned citizen had brought him to court to fight him on this.

I didn't, at first, connect these themes to nine-eleven at all, but as the episode progressed I began to suspect that there was an undercurrent of some kind.

The stories were actually reflecting some of the real-life feelings which must have been around in New York - and everywhere - in the months following nine-eleven.

The episode ended as happily as possible with the minister regaining his faith and his position in his church, his son (played by Josh Groban) found his lovely voice again. A grieving town won their case against their Mayor and held a very respectful parade - seemingly miles long - with little children carrying the helmets of lost firemen. It was at this point that the relevance to nine-eleven eventually clicked into place in my head. I waited to see the date in the end credits - yes it was - 2001! Checking on-line later, I confirmed that the episode, titled Nine One One, was aired in December 2001. I hadn't noticed the heavy clue in the episode's title which had been explained in the episode by the minister recalling that his wife's last words before she died were: "Call nine-one-one".