‘In the eye of God’: Mountain Brook residents share memories of 9/11

Taylor Davis can still remember the color of the New York sky on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The color of that sky was the most extraordinary blue I’d ever seen,” Davis said. “New York in September is the prettiest place to be.”

But in the early morning hours of that fateful day, the beautiful, blue New York sky was filled with smoke and debris, and in an instant, the world was changed. Terrorists flew planes into each of the World Trade Center towers, sending them crumbling down, while also crashing a plane into the Pentagon. Another hijacked plane, United Flight 93, was brought down in a Pennsylvania field after passengers, having heard what happened to the other flights, took back control of the plane and crashed it before it hit another target.

“Everything changed so drastically and so quickly,” Davis said.

Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day, including several friends of both Davis and her husband.

Twenty years later, Davis and other Mountain Brook residents who were personally impacted by 9/11 shared their stories with Village Living.

‘In the Eye of God’

Donna Mason-Smith was a lieutenant and paramedic with the Mountain Brook Fire Department in 2001. As part of “Alabama One,” a team composed of relief workers from across the state of Alabama, she deployed to New York soon after the attacks.

Arriving on Sept. 15, Mason-Smith’s team provided medical care to the workers who helped search for survivors and clean up the rubble and debris at Ground Zero.

“It was very humbling,” Mason-Smith said. “It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years. It feels just like last week.”

Due to the amount of steel that was present at the site, Mason-Smith said she saw a lot of infection, broken bones and third-degree burns as volunteers worked long hours to remove it. Despite some horrific injuries, people weren’t always quick to seek medical help, she said.

“People were hesitant to get help because they didn’t want to get pulled off of the pile,” Mason-Smith said.

Mason-Smith recalled how workers would ask for a Band-Aid when they needed more serious help, and how one man duct taped a laceration just so he could stay on the pile.

As time went on, and workers and volunteers came to get medical help, people got to know the people of Alabama One, Mason-Smith said.

“It was a privilege; it was an honor,” Mason-Smith said.

Walking through the streets near Ground Zero was like walking “through a graveyard,” Mason-Smith recalled someone saying. Days after the attacks, Mason-Smith said personal pictures from destroyed offices near the site would often float through the air as workers sorted through the rubble.

“You just see pieces of life floating down,” she said.

Mason-Smith recalled hearing about someone finding a body in the rubble, seeing children writing letters to their missing parents, asking them to come home. The “burly” men that were going to the pile would stop and read the letters, and would start crying, she said.

For weeks and months after the attacks, the world was glued to what was happening in New York. While she was there, being a part of history, Mason-Smith realized more than just the world was watching them.

“It felt like you were in the eye of God,” Mason-Smith said.

‘Where are my customers?’

Davis was an architect designer working for a New York firm which handled design work for the World Trade Center mall.

On Sept. 11, Davis was stepping out of the shower when she heard her phone ring. It was her aunt in Birmingham, asking if she was okay. Davis could tell she was worried, as she did not know if Davis had actually been at the World Trade Center when the planes hit.

Davis’ husband, Rick, went up to his company’s conference room in the MetLife building, which overlooked the World Trade Center. When he opened the door, he saw the second plane hit the South Tower, Davis said.

No one could leave the city, Davis said, and so the Davis’ babysitter became stuck at their apartment. She stayed with the couple until she was able to go home, Davis said.

Later that night, Davis and her husband went out with their friends, Key and Walton Foster. She doesn’t know why they made the decision to go out and eat after what had happened earlier that day, but, for one reason or another, they went to a pizza place, followed by a trip to a wine store near their home, where the owner remarked that he was worried, because some of his regular customers hadn’t shown up that night.

While they ate, Key was still brushing dust and ashes from the plume of smoke from the towers off of his clothes, a reminder of just how lucky he had been earlier that day.

‘How Am I Going to Die?’

After graduating from Vanderbilt University’s business school, Key Foster moved to New York to handle mergers and acquisitions for Deutsche Bank, which had a building across the street from the South tower of the World Trade Center.

Foster’s normal route to work included hopping on the subway and getting off on Courtland Street, two blocks from his office, but on the morning of Sept. 11, he skipped that stop and came out on Wall Street, next to Trinity Church.

As he exited the subway, he looked up at the World Trade Center towers. By that time, they were both on fire.

“The images were just so unbelievable,” Foster said.

Foster said he decided to walk back to the subway rather than go into his office, a fortunate decision, as the building was destroyed when the towers fell.

“If I stayed … I may have died,” Foster said.

The first tower fell while Foster was on the subway. Because of the loud rumblings of the subway, Foster said no one could tell that the tower was falling, until the subway tunnel began filling up with the plume. People on the trains began packing in like sardines in the back of the cars, he said.

“None of us knew what it was,” Foster said.

Foster realized how dire the situation was.

“I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to die?’’ Foster said.

If he left, he faced possible electrocution stepping on the subway tracks. If he stayed, he faced being crushed by the sheer number of people on the train, or, if that didn’t kill him, Foster feared dying by asphyxiation due to the smoke.

Thankfully, the conductor was able to put the train in reverse and drove it back to the Wall Street stop, where Foster got out and put his shirt over his head.

“It was so disorienting,” Foster said. “I looked to the ceiling to figure out how much smoke was in the room.”

Moments later, Foster realized he wasn’t in a room. He was outside, but the air was so thick with the smoke and debris from the collapsed tower that he couldn’t see the sky.

Eventually, Foster made his way into an office where he was able to get some water and brush some of the ashes off of his clothes. The group of people he was with realized they were across from the New York Stock Exchange and, fearing another attack, decided to keep walking. During their journey, the second tower fell.

“There was such a compression of air, my ears popped four or five times,” Foster said.

In 2001, cell service wasn’t what it is today, Foster said, and cell service was jammed in Manhattan, making it impossible for him to call his wife. Eventually, one person in his group got a call out to his spouse, who was then able to call other spouses, Foster said.

Three hours after he first saw the towers burning, Foster made it home to his wife and son.

“It was pretty emotional,” Foster said. “There wasn’t a lot of talking at first. A lot of tears, a long embrace. It was intense for both of us.

“That’s all I could think about … was our son and my wife,” Foster said.

Almost a thousand miles away from Foster and the events unfolding on the ground in Manhattan, Suzan Doidge was in a state of shock watching the news on television.

Doidge, currently the executive director of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce, was working for Southwest Airlines at that time, handling marketing for the Birmingham region.

“I had gotten to my office (that morning), and was about to go to the airport,” Doidge said. “My husband called and said he saw the first plane hit.”

Doidge didn’t believe him at first, but she soon realized he wasn’t joking.

“We were all in a state of shock,” Doidge said. “We didn’t know which airlines were involved.”

Doidge felt an overwhelming urge to have her children with her, so she picked them up and went home.

People at Southwest were scared, Doidge said, as it was unknown what would happen next.

“It was like a movie,” Doidge said.

The attacks threw off the typical routine at the airport, Doidge said, and forced her to work from home, well before that became the norm for many workers.

“It was a very scary time,” Doidge said.

Fear and anxiety gripped the city after the towers fell.

Davis recalled how, for days after the attacks, the sound of fighter jets buzzing over Manhattan was constant.

“Every time you heard a plane, it was scary,” Davis said. “Everybody was scarred.”

The 9/11 attacks were followed by bomb threats and the Anthrax scare. Davis said it was a “surreal, strange time.”

“You didn’t want to get on a plane; you didn’t want to open the mail,” Davis said.

The air itself served as a reminder of the attacks, Davis said.

“You could see the smoke for weeks,” Davis said.

Coming home, and never forget

Davis and her family moved back to Alabama in 2007. But the events of that day are still with her 20 years later.

“It attached me to New York in a very real way,” Davis said.

Davis continues to visit New York, but it took a while for her to be able to visit the memorial that now marks Ground Zero.

“When you find your friends …. 10, 15 years later … they’re just sort of frozen,” Davis said. “Their lives just stopped.”

The events of that day are always in the back of her mind, Davis said.

Before they moved back to Alabama permanently, Davis said on visits home, they were still stunned, as well as disconnected from their friends and family, who had only experienced the attacks through their television.

“It was so real to us, and it was a television show for them,” Davis said. “If you weren’t there, it didn’t necessarily feel as real for them.”

Davis still remembers her time in New York fondly and said 9/11 brought out the best of New Yorkers.

“New York always gets a bad rap,” Davis said. “I’ve never had that (experience). People were gruff; there were expectations, but they were kind and helpful. People pulled together.”

Six months after the attacks, the Fosters moved to Nashville for Key to take another job. The attacks “burned off” a lot of his “naïve” views of the world, he said.

“It showed what people are capable of,” Foster said. “It reminds you how delicate life is and how it can be stopped pretty quickly.”

September 11 taught Foster to live for things that are “truly important,” he said.

In 2015, the Fosters, who at that point had added their youngest son, Thomas, went back to New York and retraced the experiences of that day.

Although Key Foster, Jr. was a baby at the time of 9/11, he recognizes the significance of where and when he was born, Foster said.

“It’s definitely part of his life,” Foster said.

Mason-Smith had three young children at the time of the attacks. Seeing the attacks and then serving at Ground Zero made her realize how blessed she was.

“To be able to hold my kids, to be able to reassure them that God is good … I truly appreciated my family much more deeply,” she said.

After she returned home, Mason-Smith gave many talks and presentations about her experience.

“It felt like I was the conduit for Alabama and for Mountain Brook to be able to be a part of this,” she said.

As she shared her story, she shared, not just the story of “missing person” posters and the sadness of seeing bodies pulled from the rubble, but the power of the human spirit, of children writing “wishing well” letters to the volunteers and people serving meals to those in need.

“It will never go away,” Mason-Smith said. “But to see the goodness of people willing to help each other … it will never leave me.”

Mountain Brook Remembers 9/11: Patriot Day

While there are many celebrations held in the cities of Vestavia, Homewood and Mountain Brook throughout the year, the annual Patriot Day event is not one of them.

“It’s a very somber day,” said Mountain Brook Fire Chief Chris Mullins. “It’s not a celebration. We’re remembering people that sacrificed their lives.”

Remembering the events of Sept. 11, 2001, is “very emotional,” said Mountain Brook City Manager Sam Gaston.

“You remember where you were,” Gaston said, who said he was sitting in his office when he heard about the first plane striking one of the World Trade Center’s towers.

Gaston walked over to the Fire Department and heard about the second plane.

Later that morning, Mullins watched the towers collapse.

“A lot of firemen just died,” Mullins recalled saying at the time.

There are many ways cities throughout the country memorialize that day, and in Mountain Brook, that includes a piece of the Twin Towers being on display at the city’s municipal complex, as well as being one of the host cities for the annual Patriot Day ceremony, which gathers together city leaders and residents from the three aforementioned cities to commemorate and honor the heroes and the fallen victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The event gives the cities an opportunity to interact, said Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch III.

“These cities would do anything for each other,” Welch said. “They care about each other.”

The event isn’t easy to put together, and Welch said he hopes people show up.

This year, Mountain Brook is hosting the event, after being unable to host a public event last year due the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event, held this year on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, is set for Saturday, Sept. 11 at 8:30 a.m., and will be held at 101 Tibbett Street in Crestline Village.

Brian Hastings, the director of the state of Alabama’s Emergency Management Agency, will be the keynote speaker, and the event will also include the Mountain Brook High School jazz band.

As the anniversary of the attacks reaches year 20, Mullins said he wasn’t sure what the event would look like going forward. It may not be an annual event, but it won’t just be forgotten, just as the events of that day will never be forgotten.

“We want it to be special,” Mullins said.

Mullins still recalls the “outpouring of love” toward public safety in the days immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. People would often stop and say thank you to fire and police personnel, which, in 2021, now includes people who were babies when the Twin Towers were struck.

Even in Mountain Brook, there was some fear of what came next in the days following the attack, with security being “beefed up” around schools and places of worship, Gaston said.

Cook said law enforcement started assessing high-value targets and ensuring their safety.

Twenty years later, Stacey Cole, deputy fire chief, remembers the sacrifices made by so many that day, from the police and fire personnel to the Port Authority and everyday citizens.

“That’s who America is to me,” Cole said.

Patriot Day, he said, is about remembering them. Those heroes, he said, helped unite the country in the midst of incredible tragedy.

“I haven’t ever seen the country pull together like that,” Cole said.